For individuals on probation and those reentering their communities after incarceration, finding employment is often one of multiple challenges. Employment is an important factor in reentry, but getting to a place where the focus can be on a job, education, or a career requires support in other parts of life as well. The Los Angeles County Innovative Employment Solutions Program (INVEST) is designed to address the complex range of employment and supportive service needs and support individuals in pursuing their employment and career goals. This MDRC brief focuses on one of the unique features of the program: the array of supportive services that staff members can provide and tailor to individual client needs under a flexible spending model, which is enabled by the significant program funds reserved for supportive services and financial incentives and stipends in ways not often seen in traditional workforce programs.

The Division of Economic Independence (DEI), operated within the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), has primary responsibility for welfare and family self-sufficiency research. DEI’s publications are aimed to expand knowledge about how Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and other programs can best support the self-sufficiency and economic well-being of children and families with low incomes. This OPRE portfolio describes all the active or newly funded projects by DEI in Fiscal Year 2022. The document provides detailed summaries of each family self-sufficiency research project and highlights select findings.

Since 1996, many childless adults between the ages of 18 and 50 can only get Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for three months in a 36-month period unless they are exempt or are able to document sufficient work hours. This vulnerable population includes veterans, youth aging out of foster care, individuals reentering the workforce after incarceration, and the chronically unhoused. Many of the people subject to time limits either cannot find jobs or get too few hours of work in the jobs they do have. This Food Research and Action Center’s research brief explains the SNAP time limit provisions and discusses priorities for outreach, proper screening for time limit exemptions, and use of discretionary exemptions and waivers for areas that have 10 percent or higher unemployment or other indicators of insufficient jobs.

The challenge of attracting and retaining a diverse, productive, engaged workforce has grown. Workers seek quality jobs, and companies that prioritize job quality become employers of choice. Job quality is not just about the job; it is a combination of key drivers that are important to each worker’s overall employment experience. This Job Quality Toolkit, issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce, is an actionable tool for organizations to improve the quality of the jobs they offer. Identifying and improving the drivers most valued by workers can significantly increase their satisfaction and engagement and, in turn, improve the organization’s ability to compete for talent and achieve success in the marketplace.

The Welfare and Family Self-Sufficiency Learning Agenda (WFSSLA) was developed by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation’s Division of Economic Independence and the Office of Family Assistance (OFA). It guides the development and execution of the Division and OFA’s activities to learn how TANF and other human services best support the self-sufficiency and economic well-being of children and families with low incomes. The WFSSLA includes briefs for workstreams, or focal domains, to build knowledge about effectively fostering family economic security, stability, and self-sufficiency. Each brief synthesizes learning to date in that area based on key Division of Economic Independence projects; discusses select remaining gaps in knowledge; lists learning questions to inform future learning activities; and includes a table listing current Division projects pertaining to the workstream.

The Skills and Experience for the Careers of Tomorrow (SECTOR) program provides employment and training services, cognitive behavioral interventions, and connections to mental health and substance use disorder services for people with previous legal system involvement. It uses a sector-based approach, which connects individuals to training opportunities that offer a livable wage, career advancement opportunities, and benefits for job seekers. The model anticipates that behavioral health, well-being, employment, and earnings improvements will reduce future interactions with the criminal legal system. This MDRC report presents the findings of the SECTOR program evaluation as part of the Los Angeles County Reentry Integrated Services Project. The evaluation focuses mainly on employment and criminal legal system contact and whether SECTOR successfully connects individuals to mental health and substance use disorder services.

In 2014, three Ohio community colleges set out to adapt a developmental student support model pioneered by the City University of New York (CUNY) called Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP). This program requires students to attend school full time and provides support services for three years, including enhanced advising, financial aid, and career counseling, to help them graduate with an associate’s degree quickly. In this Evidence First podcast episode, MDRC talks with Christine Brongniart, the University Executive Director of CUNY ASAP, and Colleen Sommo, a senior research fellow in MDRC’s Postsecondary Education policy area, to learn more about the replication of CUNY ASAP and the latest findings from MDRC’s study of the Ohio program, including increased earnings and doubled graduation rates.

A work-based learning quagmire has arisen related to SNAP. Benefit recipients enrolled in subsidized work-based learning programs offered through their SNAP Employment and Training (E&T) are paid a reasonable wage in these transitional jobs; as a result, they are no longer eligible for SNAP and are forced off their training program. This sudden and unexpected decrease in or loss of government benefits that often occurs with an increase in wages is referred to as a benefit cliff. This American Public Human Services Association brief explains work-based learning and how it differs from unsubsidized employment, as well as possible solutions to benefit cliffs.

WorkforceGPS will host a virtual session on September 13, 2023 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. EDT to discuss how to expand relationships with employer sponsors for apprenticeships. This webinar will highlight the risks of relying on a single contact for planning, such as lack of expansion, decreased enrollments, or potential termination due to internal shifts or turnover while uncovering strategies for securing leadership buy-in.