Program Description

Program/Practice Description: Project EARN is a partnership among the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA), the South County Career Center, San Diego Workforce Partnership, and social policy research firm MDRC, and is designed to support low-wage workers in job retention and advancement. The demonstration program stems from the national study of the Work Advancement Support Center (WASC), which uses the Income Calculator. Project EARN consists of two parts: enhancing job retention and career advancement services for low-wage workers and building on Federal and State income security policies that seek to engage low-wage workers in work support programs, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, and Food Stamps, which can help increase the income of low-wage workers. Through technology and career coaching, the program not only provides access to these financial supports, but also helps low-wage workers advance in their current jobs.

Innovations and Results: The WASC program is established in one of San Diego's One-Stop Career Centers, which was created under the Federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 to help low-income workers find jobs. This agency tends to work in isolation from the closely related HHSA, which administers the TANF program and also works with clients to help them find employment. The WASC program represents one of the first programs to combine the efforts of the two distinct agencies, and co-located several HHSA staff on One-Stop property. MDRC research on the 2004 pilot indicated that both employers and human services staff responded positively to WASC efforts to identify advancement opportunities for clients. About 65 percent of clients showed advancement over 3 months.

Operations: The program recruits low-wage workers through numerous outreach media (mailings, advertisements, phone calls, contact through colleges and universities), conducting a pre-screening to determine whether they meet the program criteria of being within 200 percent of the poverty level, are legal residents, and are working at least part time. If a client meets eligibility requirements, the client will be assigned randomly to either a control group or treatment group. The latter group then receives information and one-on-one counseling to determine their current situation and how they might advance within their jobs. After the initial meeting, which may be scheduled immediately or at a later date, the case manager monitors test cases through follow-up calls, initiating about one contact per month, and completes tracking forms. WASC has a planned system of incentives to encourage clients to advance in their work; for example, if they participate in GED training, they can receive $20 grocery cards by demonstrating successful performance. In monitoring, case managers consider an increase of $.50 per hour as advancement; the program tends to see evidence of these advances after 6 to 9 months of participation, and most show progress within a year.

Funding: The WASC program describes itself as very labor intensive and thus expensive. In fact, funding was the biggest challenge that the center faced when initiating the program. Although the initial plan was to write grants to support the center, with a large portion of monies intended to come from Department of Labor Title I and WIA funding, the plan fell through. When only $125,000 of an anticipated $500,000 was received, the One-Stop asked for a waiver to access discretionary funding, but was turned down. Thereafter, the program changed the enrollment process to co-enroll clients in WIA as well as Project EARN, so it was able to leverage WIA funding. However, this proved to be a difficult application process and ultimately it was the center's partnership with HHSA that led to necessary funding. The budget, which previously dedicated a large sum of money to child care, was redrawn to shift money to core programming, as not all clients had children.

Staffing: The program currently includes one county clerk and five workforce coaches. The coaches handle a sizable caseload, so the program chose experienced case managers who have demonstrated high performance. Case managers must be flexible thinkers to handle the complexity of WASC supports and must make themselves available at irregular hours to ensure a connection with clients, who also are working individuals. Staff participated in introductory training on the software and study procedures prior to beginning the program.