ABSTRACT
Clampet-Lundquist et al. (this volume) paint a moving portrait of the challenges that mothers face when transitioning from welfare to work. Their stories reveal that policies designed to help low-income families can be insensitive to the obstacles those families actually face. The result, as the authors effectively point out, is that some people fall through the cracks, obstructed in their efforts to manage their lives by the very services charged with helping them. In their struggles to obtain adequate food, healthcare, and childcare, the women interviewed for this study display remarkable courage and tenacity, making their successes all the more inspiring and their failures all the more poignant. A compassionate reader learning of their experiences can only ask: how might the needs of these families be better served?
