PRINCIPLE I
STRENGTHEN FAMILIES BY ENCOURAGING EMPLOYMENT

Direction #1: Expanding EDGE (Education Designed for Gainful Employment)

The federal Family Support Act of 1988 allocated increased resources to train and educate AFDC recipients.  Michigan is conducting Education Designed for Gainful Employment--EDGE--in 19 counties.  This educational program designed to enhance employment skills and self-sufficiency will be expanded.

Direction #2: Expanding Entrepreneurial Training to Promote Self-Support

In many urban areas, the oversupply of unskilled labor and undersupply of job opportunities have been worsened by a concentration of public assistance recipients living in the areas of greatest job loss.  To promote long-term self-sufficiency, Michigan will expand the successful entrepreneurial project operating in Detroit, training public assistance recipients to start and manage their own businesses.

Direction #3: Eliminating the Work History Requirement

Current AFDC policy requires that in a two-parent family one of the parents must have a recent work history for the family to be eligible for public assistance.  Parents without this work history sometimes separate to make the family eligible.  To encourage families to remain together, eligibility will be based on financial need only, eliminating the need for a recent work history.

Direction #4:  Eliminating the 100-Hour Work Limitation

In a two-parent family, current policy restricts the number of hours worked by one of the parents. If one parent works 100 hours or more per month the family cannot receive AFDC.  To encourage two-parent families to seek and increase employment, eligibility will be based on financial need only, eliminating the 100-hour limitation.

Direction #5: Rewarding Earned Income

Income incentives encourage recipients of public assistance to seek and hold employment.  To encourage work, a set monthly amount plus a percentage of the remaining earned income will not be counted in calculating the AFDC grant.

Direction #6: Excluding Earnings and Savings of Youth

Children should be encouraged to develop good work habits and an employment history at an early age.  As an incentive to gain employment, the earned income of children and any savings accrued from those earnings, will be excluded when determining the family's eligibility for AFDC.

PRINCIPLE II
STRENGTHEN FAMILIES BY TARGETING SUPPORT

Direction #7: Fostering Family Preservation

Children grow and develop best in loving families which provide nurturing care.  All reasonable efforts must be made to assist and strengthen families to meet the needs of their children and to limit removal and out-of-home placement of children.  Michigan will expand current family-preservation efforts and embark on a program of interagency collaboration to expand or initiate services.

Direction #8: Expanding Child Support Initiatives

Children represent the largest single category of individuals living in poverty today.  In many cases this is due to the failure of non-custodial parents to acknowledge paternity or to pay their court-ordered child-support obligations.  Michigan is exceptionally effective in the collection of child-support payments, but new options are needed to ensure that children become self-sufficient and leave the public assistance rolls by expanding child-support efforts in several areas.

Direction #9 Targeting the Children's Disability Initiative

A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision eased the eligibility criteria for federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for disabled children.  Michigan will aggressively pursue benefits for disabled and financially needy children through SSI to enhance the financial stability of poor families.

Direction #10: Improving Children's Health Through EPSDT Participation
(Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment)

Michigan's infant mortality rate and the number of children lacking health care coverage are both unacceptably high.  The EPSDT program provides health screening, diagnosis, and treatment for poor children.  To improve the health of Michigan's poor children, referrals to this program will be increased through expanded outreach efforts and the use of managed health care.

Direction #11: Expanding Maternal and Infant Support Services

Low birth weight, exposure to drugs, and numerous other ailments can severely impair a child's ability to thrive and perform well later in life.  Michigan will expand Medicaid's Maternal Support Services by increasing eligibility from two months to age one for at-risk children and provide infant-support services to higher-risk infants and at-risk pregnant women.

Direction #12:  Developing a Child-Care Strategy

One of the biggest challenges faced by Michigan families is to find quality care for their children.  Michigan will continue developing a coordinated child-care strategy with the help of the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant.

Direction #13:  Helping Minor Parents on Public Assistance

Minor children who have children of their own frequently move from their parental homes.  Often these children are ill-prepared to run a household and rear children, let alone become financially independent and self-sufficient.  Mandatory assessments of these independent-living arrangements will be conducted by DSS service workers.  When return to the parental home is determined to be in the best interest of the minor and her child(ren), it will be required as a condition of eligibility for AFDC.

Direction #14:  Improving the Child Adoption Process

Every child deserves a loving, nurturing family.  For most children, a family is their birthright.  For too many others, that right somehow has been violated and they are awaiting adoption through a complex process.  The recommendations of the Binsfeld Commission on Adoption will be fully explored and implemented.

PRINCIPLE III
STRENGTHEN FAMILIES BY INCREASING RESPONSIBILITY

Direction #15: Creating the Social Contract

All citizens have values, skills, talents, and potential to share with their communities.  Michigan will provide opportunities for public assistance recipients to increase their independence and self-esteem by requiring them, as a condition of eligibility, to participate in some form of productive effort for at least 20 hours each week.  Such efforts will include options ranging from employment, education and training to community service.

Direction #16:  Implementing Higher AIMS

School-attendance problems of young children are generally an indication of family dysfunction.  The lack of education is a contributing factor to long-term dependence on the welfare system.  Michigan will pursue the enactment of the Higher Attendance in Michigan's Schools Act ("Higher AIMS") to encourage children to stay in school.  Parents whose children do not meet the attendance requirements will not receive a deduction for those children on their state income tax.  Public assistance recipients will have their monthly grant reduced for each month their children fail to meet the attendance requirement.

Direction #17: Focusing on Family Planning

Teen Pregnancy and single parenthood are two of the major causes of a lifetime of dependence on public assistance.  This problem is not restricted to any race, geographic location, or income level.  It is a statewide problem that must be confronted if we are to break the cycle of dependency for Michigan's future generations.

Direction #18:  Enhancing Fraud Control

Recipients who willfully misrepresent themselves or their circumstances to receive public assistance are defrauding the taxpayers.  To encourage recipient responsibility and to ensure public trust and accountability, expanded sanctions for welfare fraud will be imposed progressively, culminating in permanent ineligibility for public assistance.

PRINCIPLE IV
STRENGTHEN FAMILIES BY INVOLVING COMMUNITIES

Direction #19:  Expanding Communities First

Families receiving help from the government face a bewildering array of service agencies. Communities First is a community-driven service-delivery method designed to help families access services and function more productively and independently.  The pilot projects in the four original sites--Benton Harbor, Capac, Highland Park, and Muskegon (Nelson Neighborhood)--will be expanded into a fifth community.

Direction #20:  Developing Youth Education Alternatives

The state must be responsible for the education of all youth through age 18.  Youth who are expelled by a school should still be entitled to services.  The state should assure that effective alternate opportunities are available either in the public or private sector.  If the school is unable to provide these services, then funding will follow the youth to the entity providing the appropriate opportunities.

Direction #21:  Increasing Housing Options