PROGRESS assigned participants to a team of one case manager and one career development specialist. Case managers checked in with participants monthly and helped them obtain access to health care through Medicaid and assistance with child care and transportation. They also helped participants with housing, substance abuse, or other personal issues by providing counseling and connecting them to community resources.

BHBF was based on the framework developed for the Youth Transition Demonstration funded by the SSA, which focused on making youth with disabilities as economically self-sufficient as possible during their transition to adulthood. BHBF participants met regularly with the community employment development specialists (CEDS), who helped develop and oversee a PCP process, consisting of exercises that helped participants identify their goals in education, emplo

Community-based organizations (more than 25 as of the time the evaluation was published) offer STRIVE. Participants first attended a job-readiness training that covered interview techniques and helped develop participants’ soft skills, including the attitudes and behaviors necessary to be successful in the workplace. Participants who had been released from jail or prison within the last 24 hours (or within the last 72 hours if released on a Friday or traveling a significant distance) received housing.

Participants received rental assistance vouchers that could be used to rent a housing unit in the private rental market. Units had to meet U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) standards and be priced similarly to other units in the area. Local housing agencies worked in conjunction with local TANF agencies to provide comprehensive work-related services that were available in the broader community to assist participants with financial self-sufficiency.