Building Evidence on Employment Strategies (BEES) Project

BEES Logo

(2017 — 2028)

The purpose of this project is to strengthen ACF’s understanding of effective interventions aimed at supporting individuals with low incomes to find jobs, advance in the labor market, and improve their economic security.

Intended to build on previous research on the effectiveness of various employment strategies, the BEES project is funding rigorous evaluations of promising programs serving recipients of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program or other similarly low-income families who are not receiving TANF cash assistance. BEES has prioritized evaluations of programs that serve adults whose employment prospects have been affected by opioid use disorder, other substance use disorders, or mental health conditions. The project is also funding descriptive work of additional sites providing employment services to people in those populations. In addition, the project has partnered with the Social Security Administration to evaluate employment-related interventions targeting individuals with current or foreseeable disabilities who have limited work history and are at risk of applying for Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Ultimately, the goal of the project is to strengthen ACF’s understanding of evidence-supported programs that are effective in improving employment and economic security.

MDRC is the lead contractor; their partners include Abt Associates and MEF Associates.

Point(s) of contact: Megan Reid.

BEES has registered the following impact evaluations on the American Economic Association’s Randomized Control Trials Registry:

  • Breaking Barriers San Diego
  • Central City Concern
  • Individual Placement and Support in a Federally Qualified Health Center Setting
  • Individual Placement and Support in a Substance Use Disorder Treatment Setting
  • Individual Placement and Support in a TANF/SNAP Population

Information collections related to this project have been reviewed and approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs under OMB #0970-0537. Related materials are available at the BEES Project page on RegInfo.gov.

Information collections related to this project have also been reviewed and approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs under ACF’s Generic Clearances. Related materials are available at the following pages on RegInfo.gov:

Formative Data Collections for ACF Research (OMB #0970-0356):Building Evidence on Employment Strategies for Low-Income Families Generic Clearance

Related Resources

Read about OPRE's evaluation of programs providing individualized employment services to a subset of individuals receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

Read this brief to learn about OPRE's study of a program providing employment services, treatment, and supportive housing to individuals with substance use disorder.

Read about OPRE's evaluation of the Individual Placement and Support employment services model in a substance use disorder treatment setting.

Millions of Americans have had their driver’s licenses suspended at some point because they have not paid legal fines and fees. Having one’s license suspended can make it harder to find and keep a job, can increase one’s exposure to the criminal legal system, and can generally place great strain on one’s life and the life of one’s family. This issue brief examines the causes, consequences, and scope of the practice of suspending driver’s licenses due to unpaid fines or fees.

The Building Evidence on Employment Strategies (BEES) project is conducting an evaluation of Individual Placement and Support (IPS) programs being implemented in Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) to see whether and how individuals receiving IPS services in this environment benefit from the model.

Learn about how organizations that provide employment services to individuals with substance use disorder responded to the COVID-19 crisis.

Get the latest updates on sites, publications, and the impact of COVID-19 in employment programs from the Building Evidence on Employment Strategies for Low-income Families Project, or BEES, in this newsletter.

The Building Evidence on Employment Strategies for Low-Income Families Project (BEES) project strengthens ACF’s understanding of effective interventions aimed at supporting low-income individuals to find jobs, advance in the labor market, and improve their economic security. Read the May 2020 newsletter.

This report documents the experiences of five programs that integrate employment services into treatment and recovery programs for people with substance use disorder (SUD).

This brief presents lessons learned from Breaking Barriers, an Individual Placement and Support program that was set in job centers and served a diverse group of jobseekers.

Breaking Barriers was a San Diego-based program that provided employment services to individuals with low incomes and disabilities who were looking for work.

This paper discusses potential career paths within the IT sector and the outcomes and employment trajectories of individuals who started a training targeting entry-level IT jobs.

This paper examines the impetus and existing evidence on programs that integrate employment services with treatment and recovery services for people with opioid and other substance use disorders (SUDs). It includes an overview of the nature and recent history of SUDs and their treatment, including the important role that employment can play in recovery, and discusses the factors that historically limited the role of employment services in treatment programs. It also provides a brief review of the limited but promising evidence on the effectiveness of integrating substance use disorder treatment and employment services in improving participants’ employment outcomes.

This paper describes the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model, a framework for providing employment services to those facing barriers to work.

Individual Placement and Support (IPS) is a model for helping people who have serious mental illness find employment. There is a good deal of evidence showing the model’s success, but less is known about the model’s effectiveness with those who have other types of disabilities and health conditions, such as physical disabilities or less severe types of mental illness...

The Breaking Barriers program, based in San Diego, California, provided employment services to lower-income individuals with disabilities. 

MDRC carried out a random assignment impact evaluation of the program, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, in order to assess the effectiveness of the program at improving employment outcomes for program participants. Findings from that evaluation were released in September 2019...