Help to Keep Going as Long as They Need Me: A Report on Seniors Raising Children
April 2006

This report presents the data from CIR's 2005 survey of 182 Senior Caregivers of DCFS wards, examining the challenges confronting these grandparents and other senior adults as they are increasingly called upon to raise their kin. The findings of this report will assist policy makers and community-based organizations to provide better services, better advocate for their needs of these populations and create better policies and legislationg.
Executive Summary
Full Report

Medicare Reform: Widespread Confusion, Uncertain Benefits
February 2005
This report presents the data from CIR's 2004 survey of 600 Medicare recipients about their health care options, ability to access services, and choices about health care spending in the wake of Medicare reform. The findings of this report will assist policy makers and community-based organizations to advocate for programs that will best serve the needs of Medicare recipients.
Executive Summary
Full Report

Money Management by Low-Income Households: Earning, Spending, Saving, and Accessing Financial Services
August 2005
This report presents findings from interviews with low-income participants in the First Accounts Program, and discusses their household finances, experiences with banks and other financial services, and barriers to banking and saving.
Executive Summary
Full Report

Self-Sufficiency and Safety: The Case for Onsite Domestic Violence Services at Employment Services Agencies
October 2004
This report presents the findings of a two-year demonstration project that provided domestic violence services to participants in programs at employment services agencies, highlighting the challenges, service needs, and outcomes of low-income domestic violence survivors as they struggle to keep themselves and their children safe, become and remain employed, and attain self-sufficiency.
Executive Summary
Full Report

Addressing Domestic Violence as a Barrier to Work: Building Collaborations between Domestic Violence Service Providers and Employment Services
October 2004
This report summarizes the project learnings and best practice recommendations for integrating domestic violence services into employment services agencies. It discusses establishing and maintaining interagency collaborations, training of case managers, conducting screening and referrals, and ongoing delivery of domestic violence services within the employment services setting.
Executive Summary
Full Report

Community Organizing in Three South Side Chicago Communities: Leadership, Activities, and Prospects
September 2004
This study identifies barriers facing groups and leaders in communities on the South Side of Chicago that limit not only their capacity for organizing but also their ability to attract resources for their work. The findings also provide key data on current activities at the grassroots level, with particular attention to groups and leaders that have the potential to expand the scope of their efforts to larger, community-based initiatives.
Executive Summary
Full Report

Applying Online: Technological Innovation for Income Support Programs in Four States
January 2004
A study examining the development, implementation, and best practices for online applications for public benefits programs in California, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Washington based on interviews with state agencies and community-based organizations.
Executive Summary
Full Report

Policy and Practice: Customer Service in Illinois Department of Human Services Local Offices
October 2003
Findings of a customer service survey conducted in five Cook County welfare offices and recommendations for improving access to programs.
Executive Summary
Full Report

Access to Income Supports for Working Families in Chicago
October 2002
A report on barriers to income support programs that face working families
in Chicago, with recommendations for improving outreach and expanding
community-based application assistance.
Executive Summary
Full Report

What's New? Reaching Working Adults with English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Instruction, A Best Practices Report
October 2002
A report detailing new approaches and best practices to reach working immigrants with English language services.
Full Report

Barriers to English Language Learners in the Chicago Metropolitan Area
June 2001
A report detailing the number of adults with English Language Learning needs in the Chicago metropolitan area and the numerous barriers to their receiving English instruction.
Full Report

A SECOND CHANCE: Improving Chicago's GED Performance
March 1998
An analysis of Chicago's low GED pass rate and suggestions for improvement.
Full Report

Sentencing Reform for Nonviolent Offenses: Benefits and Estimated Savings for Illinois
October 2004
Commissioned by the Developing Justice Coalition, this report examines alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent drug offenses. The report discusses the potential cost savings and the social benefits of sentencing nonviolent drug offenders to mandated substance abuse treatment and intensive community supervision instead of prison.
Executive Summary
Full Report

Current Strategies for Reducing Recidivism
August 2004
This study reports on programs for inmates and released inmates that are contributing to reductions in recidivism. Programs showing the greatest success address the issues of substance abuse, low educational attainment, and the need for vocational training, job readiness, and placement services.
Executive Summary
Full Report

The Costs and Benefits of School Health Centers: A Fact Sheet Prepared for the Illinois Coalition for School Health
February 2006

This fact sheet describes the costs and estimates the benefits to the state of Illinois that accrue from thirty-eight School Health Centers that receive partial funding from the Illinois Department of Human Services. The study
focuses on benefits from reduced asthma hospitalizations, reduced emergency room visits, and increased immunizations provided for Illinois school-age children.
Full Report

Wherever I Can Lay My Head: Homeless Youth on Homelessness
March 2005
This report presents the data from CIR's 2004 survey of 400 homeless youth to learn what the youth themselves identify as their needs, the resources available to them, and the ways that the various systems serving homeless youth might be improved.
Executive Summary
Full Report
Homeless Youth Resource Directory

Pathways to and from Homelessness: Women and Children in Chicago Shelters
January 2004
Findings of interviews conducted with forty-five women staying with their children in Chicago shelters with recommendations on homelessness prevention services and needs of families in shelters.
Executive Summary
Full Report

Knocking on the Door: Barriers to Welfare and Other Assistance for Teen Parents
April 2002
Results of a survey conducted by young mothers in Atlanta, Boston, and Chicago, and recommendations for the federal reauthorization of TANF.
Executive Summary
Full Report

Accessing TANF Assistance: A Survey of Low-Income Young Mothers in Chicago
April 2002
A report detailing the trouble that young mothers have in accessing and keeping TANF assistance in Chicago.
Executive Summary
Full Report

Ending Child Poverty: What is happening in the UK?
May 2001
A report from the Center for Impact Research's U.S./UK Welfare Reform Working Group.
Full Report

Helping With Domestic Violence: Legal Barriers to Serving Teens in Illinois
December 2000
A look at the barriers to serving teen victims of intimate partner violence in Illinois with respect to counseling, housing, and orders of protection.
Executive Summary
Full Report

Domestic Violence and Birth Control Sabotage: A Report From The Teen Parent Project
February 2000
Prevalence of domestic violence within a sample of teen mothers on welfare and demonstration of how domestic violence sabotages the girls' birth control arrangements.
Executive Summary
Full Report

Less Than Ideal: The Reality of Implementing a Welfare-to-Work Program for Domestic Violence Victims and Survivors in Collaboration With the TANF Department
February 2001
An article about the Options/Opciones project.
Full Article

Saving Bernice: Battered Women, Welfare, and Poverty
June 2000
Jody Raphael's book demonstrating that domestic violence and dependence on public assistance are intricately linked.
Link to Book