Between 1994 and 1998, MTO offered housing vouchers to families with low incomes who lived in public housing or private assisted housing projects in high-poverty neighborhoods and who had at least one child younger than 18. Private assisted housing projects are rental housing built by private owners through federal programs that required them to price some units to be affordable to people with low incomes. The vouchers subsidized the cost of renting private housing in low-poverty neighborhoods.

The employment intervention for justice-involved and substance-dependent adults offered 26 weeks of employment services, case management, and life-skills training by trained clinicians with experience in employment and substance abuse counseling. The intervention was offered in three sequential phases. The first phase, offered for four to five weeks, consisted of five one-on-one and five group sessions focused on obtaining immediate employment and initiating case management services.

ICM provided participants with case managers who identified barriers to entry into substance use disorder treatment, such as childcare, transportation, and housing problems, and addressed those barriers. While participants were in treatment, case managers met with them weekly and coordinated with treatment facility staff to provide other needed services. Participants received vouchers for items such as children's toys or cosmetics as an incentive to participate in treatment. Participants received case management services for 24 months.

EfA provided vocational English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), including lessons focused on answering job interview questions, communicating in the workplace, and finding a job. EfA participants attended classes for 2 to 12 months, depending on their skill and education level. About 24 months after the program’s start, evaluators followed up with participants to assess participants’ employment and earnings.

Standard Job Club was an eight-week program broken into three-week and five-week segments. The first segment required enrollees to attend one week of daily, eight-hour group classes on workplace behavior skills and two weeks of daily, eight-hour group classes on job search skills. The second segment required enrollees to complete five weeks of supervised job search. During this time, enrollees had to make daily trips to the Standard Job Club office, where they received individual assistance from program staff.

The Chicago Housing Authority Corporation Inc. offered families a Section 8 housing voucher, which they could use to subsidize rent for housing purchased in the private market. The voucher value was equal to the difference between either the fair market rent amount or the selected unit's rent (whichever was lower) and 30 percent of the family's adjusted income.

To continue to receive benefits, TANF participants were required to engage in employment-related activities for 32 hours per week. Program staff allowed TANF participants in the Training Focused intervention to decrease work hours per week to zero hours to pursue education and training activities, with the philosophy that eliminating the requirement to engage in work would allow participants to access the most useful education and training programs.

Youth formerly in state custody (foster care or the juvenile justice system) received customized case management that included weekly meetings with a transitional living specialist who used motivational interviewing and provided trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy services as needed. Participants also received soft-skills training, supportive services, and other services to encourage independent living, education, and work.

The ChalleNGe program consisted of three phases. In Phase 1, participants attended a two-week, intensive orientation and assessment. Following this orientation, participants were formally enrolled in the program and considered cadets. The cadets then began Phase 2, which consisted of a 20-week education program focused on preparation for the GED exam and positive youth development. Phases 1 and 2 required the cadets to live on-site and experience a quasi-military environment. During Phase 3, the cadets participated in a nonresidential structured mentoring program for a year.