Minnesota Integrated Services Project

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Abstract

The Minnesota Integrated Services Projects (ISP) 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 improve access to services that address multiple needs and coordinate services provided by multiple service systems. As part of a larger evaluation of ISP, this report presents results from focus groups with ISP participants in four sites. The report discusses the characteristics of focus group participants, how they were referred to ISP, the services they received, and participants' views of the benefits of ISP.

Introduction

The Minnesota Integrated Services Projects (ISP) are designed 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 benefits, by requiring a more coordinated response from the human service system. The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) provided grants to eight sites across the state 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.

To provide an understanding of participants’ experiences in the program, this report presents results from focus groups with participants from the ISPs. Focus groups with participants in four sites were conducted—Anoka, Hennepin, Ramsey, and Washington (box 1 provides a brief description of each of the programs). These focus groups are part of a larger evaluation of the Minnesota ISP that is being completed by the Urban Institute for DHS. Earlier reports examined the implementation of the projects and participant characteristics. The final report will examine changes in participants’ economic and family-related outcomes.

The focus groups were conducted in August 2007 by Urban Institute researchers. Each ISP site was responsible for recruiting past and current participants to attend the focus group using a list of randomly selected ISP participants who had been in the program for at least six months provided by the Urban Institute. Sites did encounter some difficulties in locating some participants and generally had more success recruiting individuals who were currently enrolled in the program (rather than those who had left). Each focus group session lasted approximately 90 minutes, and participants received an incentive payment (a gift card) for attending. Because of the relatively small number of focus group participants and nonrandom selection process, the views expressed by participants should not be viewed as representative of the overall ISP population.

This report begins with a summary of the focus group sessions across the four sites and is followed by summaries of each of the individual four sessions. For each, the summary includes a discussion of the characteristics and circumstances of participants who attended the session, how participants learned of and were referred to the program, the types of services they received in the program, participants’ views of the benefits of the program, and their suggested improvements.

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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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