The program provided information about and simplified access to financial work supports, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and child care subsidies. Retention and advancement services included career coaching and access to training and education to stabilize participants’ employment and help them find better-paying jobs. The program helped participants secure funding for training and education costs through the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and other training funds. Additional incentives (gas, grocery, or gift cards) were offered to inactive participants to return and continue with the program.
The WASC Demonstration was implemented in Bridgeport, CT as the Academy for Career Advancement, and in San Diego, CA as Project Earnings, Advancement, Retention Now! The Bridgeport, CT, model focused on providing more vocational training opportunities to participants. The San Diego, CA, model focused on career coaching, including individualized support in developing long-term and short-term employment goals and addressing barriers to employment or retention, and on services to help participants advance in current jobs. Workforce development and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) staff offered services at one-stop career centers. Participants received services for two years.
The program focused on workers with low wages and reemployed dislocated workers who had limited prior connection to government assistance programs and were therefore considered most in need of work supports. A maximum of 50 percent of participants in each site could be Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants, and people receiving TANF were ineligible. The WASC Demonstration that tested the WASC programs in Bridgeport, CT and San Diego, CA also tested the WASC Demonstration with Incentive Payments in Dayton, OH.
The WASC Demonstration delivered integrated, intensive retention and advancement services and financial work supports to workers with low wages and reemployed dislocated workers to fill gaps in services available to them and help them advance and increase their incomes.