Many programs aiming to improve employment outcomes among people with low-incomes rely on relationships with employers to develop job opportunities for participants. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting recession changed the ways these programs engage with and garner support from employers. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief describes the experiences of six employment programs participating in the Next Generation of Enhanced Employment Strategies Project and presents key takeaways from their efforts to maintain and develop new connections with employers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Four of the programs serve people with mental illness, one serves Temporary Assistance for Needy Families participants with disabilities or who care for dependents with disabilities, and one serves young adults with disabilities who are transitioning from school to work.

Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Accounts are tax-advantaged savings accounts that are available to eligible individuals with disabilities. ABLE account funds can be used for "qualified disability-related expenses" (QDE). A QDE is any expense the beneficiary incurs because of the disability. These may include expenses related to education, housing, transportation, employment training and support, or other expenses that help improve health, independence and/or quality of life. This Social Security Administration blogpost explains who is eligible for an ABLE account, what the funds are used for, and the effect it has on Social Security disability benefits.

Federal initiatives fund key transition and employment support for youth and young adults with disabilities (Y&YAD). These efforts include Pre-Employment Transition Services—funded by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, and Career and Technical Education —funded by the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act. They share common goals but are housed in different agencies and have varying priorities, outcome expectations, and requirements. Service providers can leverage these different resources, maximize efficiency of delivery, and strengthen programs through braided funding. This Center for Advancing Policy on Employment for Youth brief explains braided funding and offers four policy considerations for streamlining systems to offer comprehensive services that lead to sustained employment among more Y&YAD. State examples are provided for each consideration.

The Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) program is a federal-state partnership: state VR agencies administer the program with oversight from the Rehabilitation Services Administration in the U.S. Department of Education. The program offers tailored services and supports to help people with disabilities obtain or retain employment and become economically self-sufficient. VR services range from the provision of specialized equipment and transportation to work to the provision of supported employment experiences. This Mathematica brief examines case-level VR administrative data to explore how customer characteristics predict program outcomes. This brief focuses on two outcomes -- employment status and service receipt status at program exit.

Employment coaching involves trained staff working collaboratively with participants to help them set individualized goals related to employment and providing motivation, support, and feedback as participants work toward those goals. Recently, there has been growing interest among policymakers, practitioners, and researchers in using employment coaching to assist Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients and other adults with low incomes become economically mobile. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report highlights the evaluation that was designed to assess the implementation and effectiveness of the four programs participating in the Employment Coaching for TANF and Related Populations study. The report answers the following research questions: In what contexts were programs implemented? How did the designs of the programs vary and differ? How was coaching implemented across programs? The programs highlighted in this evaluation are: • Family Development and Self-Sufficiency, which serves TANF recipients and their family members in Iowa. • Goal4 It!TM, which provides employment coaching to TANF recipients in Jefferson County, Colorado in lieu of traditional case management. • LIFT, which is a voluntary coaching program operated in four U.S. cities. • MyGoals for Employment Success, which serves recipients of housing assistance in Baltimore, Maryland, and Houston, Texas.

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Early formal work experience provides long-lasting benefits for young adults, from higher wages to less time spent unemployed over their lifetimes. Young people need support and structure to empower them as they embark on their careers. This Urban Institute toolkit was developed with input from an array of organizations serving young people who are uniquely positioned to be allies to youth worker voice, including youth development groups, nonprofits specializing in job training and placement, social enterprises that directly employ and place young workers, as well as workforce organizations that partner with training programs. The toolkit was designed to guide youth-serving organizations on how to listen to and support youth voice within their own organizations, build youth skills to advocate for themselves at work, encourage employer partners to make space for youth voice, and elevate youth worker voice in community and policy conversations.

This U.S. Department of Labor brief explores how states use financial incentives to expand Registered Apprenticeship (RA) Programs and achieve targeted goals. Incentives are additional financial supports used to increase the number of RA programs and offset the cost for employers in the form of state tax credits or subsidies to apprenticeship sponsors, related technical instruction providers, and other entities responsible for developing RA programs. The brief highlights findings from focus groups conducted with the following eight states: Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, and Mississippi.

Economic stability and employment during young adulthood are critical to long-term economic security, and today, many young adults face longer periods of financial insecurity than in the past. Young people affected by the justice system face additional barriers to achieving economic stability and employment with research showing that formerly incarcerated people are almost five times more likely than the public to be unemployed. This report details the findings of a joint project between The National Youth Employment Coalition and Urban Institute to conduct case studies of five sites that launched or implemented a broad-based, cross-system collaborative to promote workforce development and better provide labor market opportunities for justice-involved youth. The case studies include a detailed analysis of each site’s collaborative efforts, key stakeholders, best practices for systems collaboration, an exploration of funding sources, and sustainability efforts.

Research clearly demonstrates that youth and young parents experience poverty at a disproportionate rate with severe consequences to not only their current and future well-being (mental, physical, and financial), but also for the overall health of the family unit. Organizations specifically designed to serve youth often are not equipped to utilize a consistent, evidence-informed approach. They may lack the tools needed to effectively support economic mobility. This EMPath paper provides an overview of the evidence surrounding the impacts of poverty on youth and young families, and the benefits of promoting family economic stability and mobility for these populations. It highlights the experiences and learnings from the cohort of youth-serving organizations to effectively engage and support their program participants with economic mobility coaching.

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