Research That Matters (January 17 - 20, 2008)

Purpose: Self-sufficiency is generally understood both in theory and practice in terms of encouraging economic independence and financial achievement for individuals. However, self-sufficiency is not a term agreed upon specifically by policymakers, researchers, or service providers and is commonly used without being clearly defined. This is mainly because the definition is left to the discretion of the Local Workforce Investment Boards, which ranges anywhere between the local Living Wage Standard (adjusted annually) and household income above 200% poverty level. The system that social service agencies work within in order to assist individuals to achieve self-sufficiency mainly endorses these economic/financially driven definitions. Most, if not all, evaluations that measure the outcome of self-sufficiency in the traditional sense are bound to fail when the supply and demand side of the labor market cannot be adequately matched. In this sense, the purpose of this study is (1) to explore whether this top-down definition of ‘economic' self-sufficiency is consistent with how the clients perceive the term; and (2) to inform evidence-based practice on workforce development for low-income jobseekers.

Method: This study explores a bottom-up definition of self-sufficiency using a grounded theory approach. Three focus groups provided the data with which a qualitative analysis was conducted to inform a new client-centered definition of self-sufficiency. The Metropolitan Employment & Training (MET) Center in St. Louis, MO recruited and formed three focus groups of 10 to 15 adult individuals who have gone through various types of work readiness training and education at the center. Information was gathered through approximately one- to two-hour focus groups conducted on a topic of “what the respondents feel is the definition of self-sufficiency.” Each focus group session was video taped in order to conduct a qualitative analysis using the transcriptions obtained from focus groups. A computer-based text analysis program called Atlas-ti was used to perform a qualitative analysis to sort out the emerging themes.

Results: Findings suggest that the definition of self-sufficiency is multifaceted where a psychological empowerment process (agency component of hope) contributes to a forward progress toward some financial goals (pathways component of hope). The major themes identified were: Self-esteem, self-efficacy, future orientation, self-motivation, utilization of resources and skills, and developing and gradually reaching personal goals. These items were grouped into two components of the hope scale (Snyder et al., 1991, p.571). These two components are what the MET Center strives to provide for their clients/students, and the respondents felt that the program ought to continue this orientation to better assist the needs of those who are reentering the path toward self-sufficiency.

Implications: This paper proposes that hope, as the definition of self-sufficiency, is applied to areas of practice in the workforce development programs and welfare-to-work policies. Using this concept of hope as the major self-sufficiency goal would require developing relationships based on respect for clients and evaluating progress on each individual goal. This type of strength-based community practice would have to utilize long-term evaluations of 'process' rather than 'outcomes' when it comes to assessing individual hope.