Comprehensive One-Stop Shop Social Support Model
RCTReview
Vulnerable low-income households receiving minimum income assistance face complex, multidimensional obstacles—including housing instability, childcare deficits, and low educational attainment—that prevent standalone job search assistance from achieving sustained labor market entry.
Picture this
Think of a house with a leaky roof, broken wiring, and a jammed front door. Fixing only the front door lock (job search assistance) does not make the house livable. A one-stop shop model acts as a single general contractor who assesses all structural flaws at once and coordinates simultaneous repairs across housing, education, and employment support.
What the evidence says
The one-stop shop model improved overall synthetic indicators of social inclusion, housing conditions, parental skills, family satisfaction, and community integration, while reducing child material deprivation and increasing job search intensity, though it produced no statistically significant increase in short-term employment rates or earned income.
- Who was studied
- 2,359 families (1,060 treatment, 1,299 comparison) receiving minimum income schemes in Galicia, Spain.
- How
- Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) evaluating a 9-month integrated social protection model implemented by the Government of Galicia and local non-governmental organisations.
What to do
Integrate municipal social assistance and public employment services into unified single-window intake centers that conduct holistic family needs assessments and assign dedicated caseworkers to coordinate multi-sectoral support plans.
From the source
"Compared to families that received the standard social support, the one-stop window improved the overall indicator of social inclusion, with improvements in the measures of housing conditions, parental skills and family satisfaction, community integration, and education performance."
promoting-labor-market-inclusion-policy-publication.pdf