The IPS model provides customized and long-term vocational, case management, and mental health services to youth experiencing homelessness to help them get a job and maintain their employment. The model follows eight supported-employment principles, all of which relate to theories of psychiatric recovery. IPS participants were assigned to an employment specialist, case manager, and clinician at study enrollment. All study staff were co-located to integrate mental health services with job search supports.

Program participants were sorted into services based on education and college readiness at enrollment. Adults with a high school diploma or GED whose Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) reflected a 9th-to-12th-grade score equivalency received case management and college readiness training in preparation for subsequent enrollment in occupational training. If participants with a high-school-level TABE score were not enrolled in school and did not have a high school diploma or GED, they received accelerated GED preparation and occupational training simultaneously.

Twenty-four grantees offered the RExO program, including national nonprofits, faith-based community organizations, community health organizations, and local or regional nonprofits. The exact bundle of services each grantee provided varied significantly. In all programs, case managers coordinated service delivery and supported participants. Most grantees offered group mentoring for participants, and a smaller subset offered individual mentoring.

HPOG aimed to prepare participants for careers in health care occupations that paid well and were expected to experience labor shortages or increased demand. HPOG 2.0 refers to the second round of five-year HPOG grants that the Administration for Children and Families awarded in 2010. HPOG 2.0 used a career pathways framework with three core components: basic skills training, health care occupational training, and wraparound supports and services. Local HPOG 2.0 programs varied in how they implemented the career pathways framework.