Minnesota Integrated Services Project

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Abstract

The Minnesota Integrated Services Projects focus on improving the delivery of employment, health, and social services to families who receive cash assistance and have serious or multiple barriers to employment. Operating in eight sites, the project seeks to provide comprehensive assessments of participants' barriers, improve access to more complete services that address multiple needs, and coordinate services provided by multiple service systems. This report examines the implementation of the projects, provides information on participants' demographic, economic and barrier-related characteristics, and describes changes in economic outcomes among participants within a short (six-month) follow-up period.

Introduction

The passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) in 1996 set the course for a work-oriented welfare system by establishing the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program, requiring many welfare recipients to enter the labor market and imposing a lifetime limit on cash assistance of 60 months. In the wake of these reforms, policymakers and program operators have a renewed interest in what kinds of services and supports are best able to help long-term welfare recipients find and keep jobs. Despite advances in the development of programs that help recipients find jobs, a significant portion of the welfare caseload remains on the rolls for long periods either not working or working sporadically. Many of those who remain on welfare have multiple barriers to employment that make it difficult to successfully move from welfare to work. Because of its wide-ranging needs, this population is often involved in multiple but uncoordinated service delivery systems.

In 2005, the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) initiated a new effort that seeks to address the needs of long-term cash assistance recipients in the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP), many of whom are in danger of reaching their time limit on cash assistance benefits. To this end, DHS provided grants to eight sites to address the multiple needs of longterm MFIP recipients. Reflecting its focus on bringing together multiple service systems to address the needs of this population, the project is known as the Minnesota Integrated Services Project (ISP). ISP aims to improve both economic and family-related outcomes for this population by increasing access to more comprehensive services that address multiple needs, coordinating services provided by multiple service systems, and focusing on the needs of both adults and children in the household.

This paper is the second report in an ongoing evaluation of the Minnesota ISP funded by the McKnight Foundation and DHS, documenting the implementation and operational experiences of the eight sites involved in the project, providing baseline information on participants’ demographic and economic characteristics and the prevalence of a wide range of employmentrelated barriers in this population, and describing changes in economic outcomes among participants within a short (six-month) follow-up period. Subsequent reports will track longerterm employment, earnings, welfare, and other outcomes for program participants and assess the extent to which the interventions were able to improve economic and other outcomes for these individuals.

This section of the paper provides an overview of the ISP and sites and projects included in the initiative. Section II discusses how each site defined its target population and then presents comprehensive information on the characteristics of ISP participants at the time of enrollment in ISP. Section III provides an overview of the basic structure and staffing and discusses the strategies the sites used for integrating services. Section IV describes the primary services provided by the ISPs and the experiences of ISP participants in the program. Finally, section V discusses the short-term economic and family-related outcomes for ISP participants. Summary profiles of each project are provided in appendix A.

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The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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