ATTENTION: K-12 EDUCATION, PUBLIC POLICY, EDITORIAL AND WELFARE REFORM WRITERS

06 November 2001
Contact: Kathleen Maclay, Media Relations
(510) 643-5651
ckm@pa.urel.berkeley.edu

WHAT:
"The Daily Lives of Poor Families," a conference at the University of
California, Berkeley, presenting new research and ethnographic studies that move beyond statistics to show how poor children and their parents are faring under welfare reform.

Researchers look at how mothers view their jobs, how low-income parents deal with conflicts of work and child raising, how they struggle to get stable childcare slots, and how these parents find the economic and social support they need to survive. Several mothers on welfare also will tell their stories.

WHEN:
Friday, Nov. 9, 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 10, 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m. with optional afternoon session.

WHERE:
UC Berkeley's Krutch Theater on the Clark Kerr Campus on Thursday;
Booth Auditorium at the (Boalt) School of Law on Friday.

WHO:
Key national, state and local policymakers and activists in the field of welfare reform, including:

* Wendell Primus, the former deputy assistant secretary of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services who resigned when President Bill Clinton signed the welfare reform measure in 1996.

* Ron Haskins, former Republican House of Representatives counsel who wrote much of the legislation that was enacted.

* Rita Saenz, California welfare director.

* Jane Henderson, executive director of California Children & Families Commission.

* California Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley, leading legislator on state welfare policy.

BACKGROUND:
The conference comes as Congress prepares in the coming year to address welfare legislation approved in 1996 by President Clinton. Open to the public. Registration is $75.

Conference sponsors are the UC Berkeley Center for Child and Youth Policy, UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare, Policy Analysis for California Education, and California Department of Social Services.