Built to Last: Why Skills Matter for Long-Run Success in Welfare Reform is a compelling argument for longer term, more comprehensive thinking in assisting people to move up the economic ladder. Karen Martinson and Julie Strawn authored this 38-page brochure (available here in PDF) in 2003 for the Center for Law and Social Policy and the National Adult Education Professional Development Consortium.

Career Advancement for Welfare Recipients and Low-Wage Workers is an article published by the Finance Project on the Welfare Information Network that summarizes advice for workforce operators about the importance of career advancement strategies for TANF and hard-to-serve people. The strategies discussed include promoting work-based learning; post-employment education opportunities; how to help clients advocate with employers for job promotion and management opportunities; as well as innovative practices in the various states. Written by Nanette Relave, it is an HTML document that totals 19 pages.

Promising Practices Catalog offers links to details on successful career advancement programs.

Steady Work and Betters Jobs: How to Help Low-Income Parents Sustain Employment and Advance in the Workforce is a how-to guide to help TANF and low-income workers make the successful transition from sporadic low-paying jobs to permanent employment with career opportunities. This guide addresses the crucial post-employment period and tackles a variety of important issue, providing national best practices for each strategy. Our link takes you to the abstract. From there, you can click on a link to the full 173-page PDF file, but you might want to be on a broadband connection first. Written by Julie Strawn and Karen Martinson, this was published by MDRC in 2000.

Wage Growth Strategies in the STRIVE Network, by Steve Redfield, STRIVE, is a seven-page transcription of a slide presentation in Word that describes the STRIVE Network and how it approaches support and soft skills, targeted job placement, general hard skills training and industry-specific skills training.

Training to Get Ahead, by Ellen Scully of AFL-CIO Working for America Institute, is a four-page transcription of a slide presentation in Word that describes the Working for America Institute, the climate for placing hard-to-employ workers and some strategies to address the challenges.

Building: Knowledge, Security and Confidence by Teresa Perez of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, is a 26-slide presentation in PDF format that offers an overview of the FDIC's Money Smart adult education program.