Surviving rural poverty in the midst of welfare reform: Case studies in Vermont

On August 22, 1996, President Clinton signed legislation ending guaranteed cash payments under the welfare program Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFCD), changing over sixty years of social welfare policy and leading to new policies and programs for families in financial need. Unfortunately, most of these changes have assumed an urban-based understanding of poverty. Additionally, the majority of current research related to welfare reform activities also has as its focus urban poverty. While a few studies have reported on the impacts of welfare reform in nonmetropolitan areas, they are quantitative in nature; adding little to our understanding of the daily lives of rural families living in the midst of welfare reform. This qualitative research study describes the lived experiences of forty Vermont families who were receiving Aid to Needy Families with Children, Vermont\u27s version of AFDC, at the onset of the investigation. During the data collection period, September 1994–November 2000, all families were experiencing various impacts of welfare reform. Focus of this investigation was on the day-to-day lives of the research participants with particular attention given to poverty survival strategies used by the families. Detailed case studies of the eight primary families in the study are provided, offering the reader insight into their daily lives. Information from these primary families along with data obtained from the other thirty-two households are analyzed and reported. Three primary issues related to poverty in rural Vermont emerged from that analysis: (1) Geographic and climate related isolation exacerbate the poverty experience. (2) Rural areas have inadequate formal services for families experiencing poverty. (3) People with low incomes living in rural areas lack social capital. This study found that welfare reform activities, formulated on urban-based assumptions about poverty, exacerbate the difficulties families in rural Vermont face when trying to move from welfare to work. The author concludes that welfare reform efforts need to be tailored to the uniqueness of rural life if they are to be successful at helping families become self-sufficient