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Welfare reform comes across as a work very much in progress in "Take It from Me," which interweaves penetrating case studies of low-income New Yorkers. One woman, with a troubled teenage son, can't find work as a waitress despite her well-spoken manner. A recovering substance abuser with three children has a job but earns just $5.50 an hour. And a young mother of three can't regain custody of the two she lost without an apartment. "We have the thirst to make it to the top," says another. "But in the world as it is today, no one is on our side."