AF was a small-group, one-week program in which participants (veterans with felony histories) described their work aspirations, drafted resumes, and discussed employment challenges. After AF, participants moved into IPS, a program founded on a set of core principles—including small caseloads and rapid job searches—with the intention of helping people find and keep jobs. During IPS, supported employment specialists (SESs) provided individual job search services and worked with local employers to find positions for participants.

The program provided a life-skills course and internet-based instruction designed to improve math and reading skills to the ninth-grade level. After completing the initial education, participants could enroll in occupational training in certificate courses, including courses in the administrative support, health care, and manufacturing fields. Participants began with a life-skills course that lasted 17 hours, progressed to occupational training courses that lasted between 2.5 and 16 weeks, and finished with 24 hours of career-readiness training.

Pathways began with orientation activities, which included assessments of occupational skills and career interests. Participants then worked three days per week and spent the other weekdays participating in nonwork activities provided by Pathways, such as job-readiness training, career-development workshops, and case management. Participants first worked in transitional jobs with street-cleaning crews or in the kitchen of the implementing organization, the Doe Fund. Next, they worked at a subsidized internship with a partner employer.

Reach for Success revolved around case managers who recruited participants for the intervention, connected them with services, and helped them navigate through life crises and job loss. Case managers contacted participants at least once a month and provided individualized counseling to help them navigate new job responsibilities or interpersonal issues (at work or at home) that presented a challenge to their continued employment. Case managers were given a reduced caseload of 40 to 85 cases compared with the typical 100 to 120 cases per case manager.

HPOG aimed to prepare participants for careers in health care occupations that paid well and were expected to experience labor shortages or increased demand.