Subsidized and Transitional Employment Demonstration (STED), 2010-2017
Project Overview
This project will evaluate subsidized and transitional employment approaches for critical low-income populations, potentially including welfare recipients and low-income non-custodial parents. The project will examine subsidized employment strategies designed to address two distinct goals: (1) provide work-based income support for people who are not able to find regular, unsubsidized jobs; and 2) to improve the employability of disadvantaged groups. These strategies will build upon approaches that have demonstrated empirical effectiveness in previous studies, test new and innovative interventions designed to demonstrate promising program components, and adapt to current policy environments at the federal, state, and local levels.
The project began with a short-term analysis of what is known about existing or previous approaches to subsidized employment, including transitional jobs, especially within the context of current TANF policies and requirements as well as efforts under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The team is currently exploring potential sites that could participate in the evaluation, which will include a random assignment impact evaluation in up to seven sites, an implementation evaluation at each project site, and an analysis of the costs and benefits (both financial and non-financial) of the subsidized employment programs included in the evaluation. The goal of this evaluation is to increase our knowledge about the efficacy of subsidized employment programs.
The evaluation is being conducted MDRC and its subcontractors, Branch Associates, Decision Information Resources (DIR) and MEF Associates.
The points of contact are Girley Wright and Erica Zielewski.
