This paper offers a framework for thinking about the complex array of public programs and private benefits that can help low-income working families chart a course toward steady work, economic security, and healthy development for their children. Making a difference to these families requires paying attention both to their private-sector workplaces and to many different public programs. These workplaces often pay low wages, lack flexibility in scheduling, and provide limited benefits. The public programs—such as housing and child care subsidies, job training, health insurance, and income supports like the earned income tax credit (EITC) and food stamps—typically are not coordinated withone another, and each program operates under its own set of rules and financing and administrative structures. Helping low-income working families also requires paying attention to the adults’ lives as both parents and workers. Because low-income families are less likely than better-off families to have flexibility at work, are more likely to be raising children with physical or emotional health problems, and are more dependent on each week’s paycheck without significant private resources, they face even more wrenching conflicts between family and work than other Americans.