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The Learning, Earning and Parenting (LEAP) Program of Ontario Works Two Decades On: A Descriptive Cohort Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2020

Tracy Smith-Carrier ,
Don Kerr  and
Juyan Wang
Tracy Smith-Carrier
Affiliation:
School of Social Work, King’s University College at Western University, London, Ontario, Canada, E-mail: tsmithca@uwo.ca
Don Kerr
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, King’s University College at Western University, London, Ontario, Canada, E-mail: dkerr@uwo.ca
Juyan Wang
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Social Science Centre, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada, E-mail: jwang247@uwo.ca
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Abstract

Although scholarship on social assistance (or welfare) has proliferated over the years, there remains a dearth of literature on the Learning, Earning and Parenting (LEAP) program for teenage parents. We followed two LEAP cohorts (Cohort One: 2003-8; Cohort Two: 2009-14) over five years to explore how many had stayed, shifted programs (e.g. to the disability program) or left social assistance entirely. Exit rates, while higher for Cohort One (51.3 per cent relative to 43 per cent for Cohort Two), were fairly low; roughly 10 per cent lower than those of the overall social assistance caseload. LEAP does not appear to vastly improve the employment prospects of a significant proportion of its participants over time. American researchers are proposing a shift in programming towards a two-generation approach, pairing early childhood education with parent human capital development, Ontario – who imported LEAP from its US counterparts from the beginning – should follow suit.

Keywords

Active Labour Market Policies (ALMPs)LearningEarning and Parenting (LEAP) programsocial assistanceteen motherswelfareworkfare
Type
Articles
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , October 2020 , pp. 573 - 584
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2020

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