Assessing Five Years Of Welfare Reform In Illinois; Legislators, Experts Discuss Progress, Poverty & Challenges

2/20/2002

From: Valerie Denney, 312-282-2229 or 312-408-2580

News Advisory:

Legislators and welfare reform experts will discuss the impact of welfare reform on Illinois residents in order to bring legislators up to speed on the issue prior to reauthorization debates this Fall in the U.S. Congress.

Though President George W. Bush has announced that funding levels for welfare reform will stay the same ($16.5 million), individual states are likely to continue to have a great deal of discretion in the use of those funds.

"A General Assembly Discussion on Reauthorization of TANF and the Reduction of Poverty in Illinois" is sponsored by the Illinois Poverty Summit and will examine welfare caseload reductions in Illinois, barriers to work and welfare reform's impact on poverty.

The meeting will be held Thursday, February 21, 2002 from 9 to 11 a.m. in the Auditorium at the Agricultural Center on the Illinois State Fairgrounds, 801 Sangamon. Enter through Gate 11. Parking on the left.

Participants include:

-- Thomas Jerkovitz, senior advisor to the Governor on Health and Human Services -- National Council of State Legislators - Jack Tweedie -- Joint Center for Poverty Research - Dan Lewis -- National Center on Poverty Law - John Bouman -- Work, Welfare & Families - Phyllis Russell -- American Public Human Services Association - Elaine Ryan

Federal welfare reform legislation - Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) - passed in 1996 and is set to expire in October 2002 unless it is renewed.

Illinois Poverty Summit, a bipartisan group of Illinois leaders chaired by U.S. Senator Richard J. Durbin and U.S. Representative Judy Biggert, analyzes poverty trends in Illinois and sets benchmarks for the reduction of poverty statewide. The Summit is staffed by the Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights, founded in 1888 as Travelers Aid. Today the organization is a leader in providing services to homeless and low-income populations and in developing long-term solutions to entrenched and emerging issues of poverty.