Assisting TANF Recipients Living with Disabilities to Obtain and Maintain Employment: Providing...

“To aid TANF recipients living with disabilities in meeting their work participation requirements, some state and local agencies have instituted programs or components of programs that include a more individualized service approach where specialized staff with small caseloads work frequently and intensively with these recipients to address personal and family challenges, including appropriate socialization to the work environment and/or accommodations to perform their job well.

This practice brief explored the provision of personal and work supports intended to help TANF recipients living with disabilities participate in employment program activities and competitive work. The brief began by identifying some of the potential benefits and challenges of providing supports. The next section presented findings from four in-depth case studies to illustrate how these programs use personal and work supports to prepare clients for and engage them in work or work-related activities. The concluding section included a summary of key program elements. This brief was designed to provide policymakers and program administrators with information on innovations that have been implemented to improve the employment outcomes of TANF recipients living with a disability in the hope that they may encourage other programs to develop or refine programs of their own” (p.1). (Abstractor: Author)

Full publication title: Assisting TANF Recipients Living with Disabilities to Obtain and Maintain Employment: Providing Specialized Personal and Work Support

"Supports may be provided in a variety of ways to prepare [TANF] clients [with a disability] for competitive employment. Supports [offered by the programs in the study] included intensive case management, job coaching, work accommodations, rehabilitative services, work and logistical support, physical and mental health treatment, and support groups, although programs varied in the types and intensity of supports provided. Despite differences, some service components were common across programs, such as small caseloads, use of specialized staff, access to specialized physical and mental health treatment, and efforts to blend supports with work" (p.10). Abstractor: Author)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2008
• Author(s): Derr, Michelle K.
• Organizational Author(s): Mathematica Policy Research
• Funding Source: Self-funded
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies