Reforms in South Carolina's welfare program were implemented in 1996 as the FI Program. In promoting a "work first" approach to welfare reform, the program provides transitional assistance to families trying to leave welfare and sets both time-limited benefits and stringent, full-family sanctions for noncompliance with program rules. This study focuses on the interactions between the Food Stamp Program (FSP) and the FI program and on the role that food stamps play in helping families move from welfare to self-sufficiency. It will use administrative data on program participation and earnings, as well as survey data on families' well-being, that were collected as part of ongoing evaluations of the FI program. The study will also link these data with county-level contextual data on skill-specific earnings and employment opportunities. Specifically, it will examine FSP participation and benefit levels among different types of welfare recipients and leavers; the interactions between FSP participation, cash assistance, and other types of transitional assistance among current recipients and leavers; how changes in local, skill-specific employment and earning opportunities contributed to the decline in welfare and FSP receipt; and how these changes affect the families' economic success and well-being.