Today’s low-income families must patch together their own safety nets from disparate sources of assistance within a context of budget cuts and the growing need for services because of the impact of the Great Recession. Doing so involves a complex and unacknowledged form of labor termed the unspoken shift, which generally falls on the shoulders of women. This article approaches the patchwork safety net system through the perspective of low-income mothers in Boston. Using findings from 6 years of research with low-income families, it argues for a more comprehensive approach to providing social services and reforming public policy.
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