The Employment Services Program (ESP) is an integral part of DTA’s efforts to reduce reliance on benefits and promote economic mobility through work. Each year, the state legislature allocates funding for employment services for families receiving TAFDC through the ESP line item in the state budget. DTA case managers and FEWs assist families receiving TAFDC to meet their work program requirements by completing an initial assessment and referring them to the most appropriate activity for their skill level and goals. In addition to employment education and training, learning disability assessments, and high school equivalency testing support are also funded through the Employment Support Program. The Competitive Integrated Employment Services (CIES) program is funded through ESP and is focused upon achieving employment outcomes. Service providers are reimbursed as clients pass through a recognized combination of milestones with the goal of successfully obtaining and maintaining employment. The CIES model organizes these milestones into a service continuum marked by outcome benchmarks such as obtaining a job or achieving 90 days of employment as the client moves along the path to family sustaining employment. Moving forward, providers will be required to track clients for one year after obtaining employment. These benchmarks are organized into service components. In FY17 clients who participated in state-funded CIES programs had an overall employment retention rate of 91.1%. Clients who participated in FY18, CIES programs had an employment retention rate of 85.4%. The CIES program is offered state wide and there are four CIES Models: Employment Ready (Model I, currently not funded), Employment Training and Education (CIES Model II), Employment Supports (CIES Model III), and Enhanced Employment Supports (Model IV, currently not funded). At current funding levels, DTA is only able to offer Model II and Model III. DTA’s eligibility system ensures that clients who are not participating or who have not provided verification of their participation are sanctioned timely. Nonexempt parents and caretakers who fail to meet work program requirements under 106 CMR 703.150(A) are mandated to participate in community service. Once mandated, a nonexempt parent or caretaker who fails to work, participate in education and/or training or perform community service for the required minimum number of hours per week or the maximum hours allowed under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), is ineligible for TAFDC. Repeated failure to work or participate in education, training, or community service once mandated to do so, results in termination of assistance for the entire household. Massachusetts uses its Full Engagement Workers (FEW) to re-engage recipients when they fail to participate to help families take full advantage of their time limited benefits and access available supports on their path to economic mobility. Regulations pertaining to work program sanctions and good cause for failure to comply with such requirements can be found at 106 CMR 707.200, et seq. The state’s workforce development activities for parents and caretakers receiving TAFDC described above are based on current resources through the Employment Services Program. The WIOA Steering Committee, policy makers and leadership at DTA agree on the need to increase available resources for education and training programs focused on career pathways to help move individuals receiving assistance into employment opportunities that provide family sustaining wages. Successful strategies typically require multi-year education and training that leads to a credential along with family support (public assistance, child care, transportation), coaching at the education and training provider, on-the-job experience (subsidized or internships), and intensive job placement (unsubsidized) support upon completion (potentially through the One-Stop Career Centers). The WIOA partnership is one example of the Department connecting with available resources to better serve families. The Department is also engaged in a pilot partnership with the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission to increase options for parents and caregivers who have some level of disability but want to engage in work. The Employment Services Program (ESP) and Pathways to Self-Sufficiency The Department’s Employment Services Program (ESP) offers a variety of education, skills training, and employment opportunities to clients delivered by the Department and community-based agencies. Additionally, in 2016 the Department launched Pathways to Self-Sufficiency, an assessment and referral tool used to identify Economic Independence Goals for families. The full assessment, which takes place shortly after a TAFDC case is established, and at each case review, identifies a parent’s or caretaker’s strengths and challenges in moving to economic mobility. This tool provides a means of measuring a client’s progress towards their Economic Independence Goal, referring clients to Employment Service Program activities, providing Employment Service Program support services such as authorization for no fee child care and a transportation reimbursement, and establishes the client’s Pathways to Self-Sufficiency Employment Development Plan. The Employment Development Plan details the assessment, referrals made to Department specialists as well as sister agencies and serves as a reminder of Department rules and regulations relative to the work program and time-limited benefits. Some TAFDC applicants are subject to a Pre-Benefit Job Search requirement. Clients are screened to determine whether they must participate as a condition of eligibility. Families determined to be non-exempt are subject to Pre-Benefit Job Search under one of the two following categories: Work Ready: clients with minimal barriers to employment, a recent work history and, who have both a high school diploma or equivalency and are proficient in English. The penalty for Work Ready clients who fail to comply with this requirement is a case denial. Initial Job Search: clients with some identified challenges to employment but who do not meet exemption criteria. The penalty for Initial Job Search clients who fail to meet this requirement is individual denial. Clients subject to Pre-Benefit Job Search, must attend a TAFDC Group Orientation and document two additional job search-related activities, such as a job application or attendance at a career fair. These three contacts must be submitted during established application timelines. Clients must also report whether they were successful in obtaining employment and if not, identify why they were not successful. Clients must then report by day 60 of a recently approved application, an additional three job search activities, and again whether or not they were successful in obtaining employment, and if not, why not. Additional Employment Programming includes:
DTA Works The DTA Works program is designed to help TAFDC parents and caregivers in need of work experience and mentorship by providing internship placements in one of DTA’s 23 Transitional Assistance Offices (TAOs) as well as other agencies and community partners. Under this initiative, clients not only gain professional skills and work experience, but are given “on the job” support to develop the soft skills necessary to obtain and maintain employment. Clients enrolled in the DTA Works program are eligible to participate for up to six months and receive a small stipend. Additionally, clients at the end of their six-month internship are evaluated for skills matching current job openings at DTA and with other state agencies. Clients are required to conduct independent job search during their enrollment in DTA Works. Participating clients are overseen by a program manager who meets with each intern one-on-one on a bi-weekly basis to evaluate the placement and provide job development services. Young Parents Program The Young Parents Program (YPP) is an educational outcome-based program administered through community-based organizations statewide. YPP is designed to serve pregnant and/or parenting young adults with at least one child who receives TAFDC who do not have a high school diploma or its equivalent or who wish to pursue post-secondary education. Pregnant and parenting young adults, ages 14 through 24, are eligible to enroll in YPP services and may participate up to age 25. Services include assessment, Adult Basic Education, high school/high school equivalency education, post-secondary education and training, life and parenting skills, counseling, prevocational activities, job development, and follow-up services. YPP's primary goals are to empower parents to pursue a path to economic mobility through education pathways and job readiness, to actively engage participants to develop the skills necessary to advocate and care for their children, and to provide a sense of hope and aspiration to empower families to break the cycle of multi-generational poverty. Secure Jobs Secure Jobs was created through a partnership between the Fireman Foundation and the Massachusetts Interagency Council on Housing and Homelessness to address both homelessness and joblessness by bringing together employment and housing agencies from across the state to help homeless families increase their level of economic self-sufficiency. Through state and local agency collaborations, Secure Jobs offers access to real solutions and supports that help families regain stability as they secure employment. These partnerships provide integrated housing and employment services using the Secure Jobs case management model of providing families long term personalized support tailored to their individual needs as they find financial stability and a permanent home. Through contracts with community-based provider agencies, the program provides employment supports, job training and related services to homeless families receiving certain services from the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).
Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants (ORI) The Office for Refugees and Immigrants (ORI) offers services to employment authorized non-citizens receiving TAFDC, who are in need of assistance to overcome cultural and linguistic barriers in order to obtain and maintain employment. Services include a comprehensive assessment of client needs and job search skills. ORI provides ongoing follow-up services once a client is employed. Services are provided in the client’s primary language as clients work to build English skills and make it possible for DTA to serve recent immigrants that have a wide range of cultural and linguistic barriers to employment. ORI services are offered in the Boston, Lynn, Worcester and West Springfield areas. Community Service Program (CSP) CSP provides work experience to TAFDC recipients who have been unable to find paid employment. The goal of this program is to place recipients in activities that will establish a work history and good references through productive working relationships. Participation hours are consistent with the requirements of the Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA). Other Employment-Related Supports include: English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL): ESOL is provided for parents and caregivers whose employment outcomes are dependent on or would benefit from increased fluency in spoken and written English. Learning Disability (LD) Assessments: The Department assures that parents and caregivers receiving TAFDC have access to free learning disability screenings and assessments, to identify barriers to learning and employment. LD assessments are provided by the University of Massachusetts’ Disability Evaluation Services (DES) and include vocational assessments. Transitional Support Services Stipends: Families whose TAFDC cases close due to earnings and remain closed for at least 30 days, receive Transitional Support Services stipends for four months. These stipends are to cover transportation costs and other work-related expenses. The amount of the stipends gradually reduces over the course of the four months. For DTA clients not receiving TAFDC, The SNAP Path to Work program offers unemployed and underemployed Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients who do not also receive TAFDC opportunities to gain skills, education and experience necessary to secure and maintain regular employment and economic self-sufficiency. This is done through vocational skills training, education, job search training, job search assistance and job retention services offered to voluntary participants statewide through a growing network of contracted providers. These providers may qualify for partial federal reimbursement for allowable costs associated with serving SNAP participants. The intent of reimbursement is to increase capacity and/or enhance employment and training opportunities within the state.
