n July 1996, "welfare" was declared dead in North Carolina, and "Work First" was born. The mandate followed national welfare reform: economic assistance was not an entitlement for needy families as it had been for more than 30 years. Counties would spend public-assistance money to help families go to work.

To achieve these goals, North Carolina requires each county to develop a plan for moving families into work. Counties get limited flexibility in how they implement their plans and spend their public assistance money, though each county must provide basic services such as child care. And money must be spent on families whose income is 200 percent of the poverty level or less and who have children under the age of 18. With this autonomy comes responsibility for meeting goals such as having 50 percent of clients working at least part-time.

The new laws also placed time limits on public assistance for the first time. In North Carolina, any adult who has been on assistance for 24 consecutive months must leave Work First and may not receive assistance again for three years. And the federal public-assistance law places a 60-month lifetime limit on each adult’s receipt of benefits. In some cases the state may grant hardship extensions of both limits.

More than five years later, the number of North Carolinians cashing monthly assistance checks has certainly dropped — from more than 120,000 in January 1995 to about 51,500 in December 2001. But it’s still too early to tell whether Work First is really a success, says Dean Duncan, clinical associate professor of social work. The true test, he says, will be how well families fare after they leave the program.

Other Carolina researchers are equally reluctant to proclaim Work First's success or failure. Instead, says Phil Cooke, professor of social work, they are telling a story about how welfare reform has played out in North Carolina. These researchers and some social workers agree that Work First has spurred counties to find new ways of helping clients become self-sufficient. But scarce resources make it harder to help some of the toughest cases — those who, for instance, have only a sixth-grade education or have never held a job.

Cooke and Deil Wright, professor of political science, lead a team of Carolina doctoral students as well as researchers from 11 other UNC-system institutions conducting case studies of 25 North Carolina counties. The "Tracking County Responses to Welfare Reform" study also includes surveys of more than 400 county commissioners, county managers, social service directors, and social service board chairs from all 100 counties. Cooke believes that the experiences of these "policy implementers" can be instructive for national policymakers because North Carolina’s county-centered system is unique.

In the case studies, many respondents said that Work First has shifted the nature of county caseworkers’ jobs from simply determining eligibility for cash benefits to helping clients solve problems and find jobs. Robert Gilmore, Work First supervisor for Orange County, echoes that opinion. "The counties were given a chance to be as creative as possible in providing resources to help clients move forward," Gilmore says. "Work First has caused us to rethink the way we do business."

ome new ways of doing business: Durham County’s Department of Social Services (DSS) contracts with the city’s chamber of commerce, supporting a full-time "job developer" position. This person organized several job fairs at Durham’s DSS offices in 2000, leading to jobs for more than 100 Work First recipients. This partnership between the Durham DSS and chamber of commerce has been a model for the state, according to the Durham case-study author Rebecca Winders of North Carolina Central University.

Lack of transportation to and from work is a constant problem, especially for clients who live in rural areas. Gilmore notes that some of his clients are in their thirties or forties and have never driven a car. This year Orange County spent part of its discretionary money on adult driving classes, and about 32 women have received their licenses so far. In Caldwell County, the DSS bought a "Job Search Van" and hired a driver to take clients to and from work.

To increase services, many counties have worked more closely with non-profit organizations, businesses, and other community members. "There’s no question that welfare reform has resulted in communities participating much more in welfare issues than before," Cooke says.

Gilmore and Winnie Morgan, Work First faith-involvement coordinator for Orange County, agree that community cooperation has been crucial. "We didn’t have the resources in place when Work First was first implemented," Morgan says, "but now we do." Community organizations in the county have worked with DSS to provide such services as a car-donation program, G.E.D. classes, and clothing closets.