Integrated Case Management participants worked with a single case manager to improve their educational and vocational skills and to determine their welfare eligibility and payment issuance. Participants who did not have a high school diploma or general education diploma were assigned to basic education classes; participants with basic education credentials were assigned to vocational training, postsecondary education, or work experience. Case managers provided job search assistance after they determined that participants were employable. Supportive services offered included child care, transportation, and other incidental work costs, and the program had an on-site child care center. Case managers closely monitored and enforced program participation and imposed sanctions on participants who did not meet the program participation requirements by reducing their monthly welfare payments. Services ended when clients exited AFDC. Participants in Integrated Case Management were single-parent AFDC applicants and recipients whose youngest child was at least 3 years old. The intervention was implemented in Columbus, OH, and was mandatory for all participants as part of the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training welfare-to-work program, unless they met one of several exclusion criteria.
The effectiveness of Integrated Case Management when compared with Traditional Case Management indicates the effect of being referred to a set of services that includes those unique to Integrated Case Management; the comparison indicates how much better the offer of Integrated Case Management met participants’ needs than Traditional Case Management. While participants in Integrated Case Management worked with a single case manager, participants in Traditional Case Management worked with one case manager to improve educational and vocational skills and with a separate income maintenance case manager to determine their welfare eligibility and payment issuance. Integrated Case Management case managers also worked with fewer cases than case managers in the Traditional Case Management program did and were therefore able to provide more personalized attention and careful monitoring. Case managers in the Traditional Case Management program had larger caseloads and did not monitor participation as closely.
Integrated Case Management provided personalized case management to single-parent Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) applicants and recipients to help them improve educational and vocational skills in preparation for securing a job. This evaluation directly compared Integrated Case Management to a separate intervention, Traditional Case Management, in order to better understand which of the two interventions might be more effective. The distinctive features of Integrated Case Management were the assignment of a single case manager for employment services and welfare services and more personalized attention from their case managers.