Case Management – Building Better Programs

MDRC: Becoming Adults

FIS Intern — Tue, 12 May 2015 13:55:35 +0000

This study evaluated a program that offers individualized services to young people who are making the transition from foster care or juvenile justice custody to independent adulthood. The program provides intensive, individualized, and clinically focused case management, support, and counseling. After one year, the Transitional Living program improved outcomes in three of the six domains that it was designed to affect. The program boosted earnings, increased housing stability and economic well-being, and improved some outcomes related to health and safety. However, it did not improve outcomes in the areas of education, social support, or criminal involvement.

Becoming Adults: One-Year Impact Findings from the Youth Villages Transitional Living Evaluation

MDRC: Case Management for Students at Risk of Dropping Out

FIS Intern — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 21:07:06 +0000

Services to help students stay in school are often fragmented. In this program, school-based coordinators identify students at risk, work with them to assess their needs, connect them with school and community support, and monitor their progress. This report, the first of two from a random assignment evaluation of Communities In Schools case management, focuses primarily on the implementation of case management in 28 secondary schools during the 2012-2013 school year.

Communities In Schools seeks to organize and provide supports to at-risk students in the nation’s poorest-performing schools, including through “case-managed” services. Case-managed students received more services than others, but early impact findings are inconclusive.

Case Management for Students at Risk of Dropping Out: Implementation and Interim Impact Findings from the Communities In Schools Evaluation

MDRC: Doubling Graduation Rates

FIS Intern — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 18:41:28 +0000

Community colleges offer a pathway to the middle class for low-income individuals. Although access to college has expanded, graduation rates at community colleges remain low, especially for students who need developmental (remedial) courses to build their math, reading, or writing skills. Many reforms have been found to help students in the short term, but few have substantially boosted college completion. The City University of New York’s (CUNY’s) Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP), launched in 2007 with funding from the New York City Center for Economic Opportunity, is an uncommonly comprehensive and long-term program designed to help more students graduate and help them graduate more quickly.

This report presents results from a random assignment study of ASAP at three CUNY community colleges: Borough of Manhattan, Kingsborough, and LaGuardia. Low-income students who needed one or two developmental courses were randomly assigned either to a program group, who could participate in ASAP, or to a control group, who could receive the usual college services. Comparing the two groups’ outcomes provides an estimate of ASAP’s effects. Key findings from the report include the following:

ASAP was well implemented.
ASAP substantially improved students’ academic outcomes over three years, almost doubling graduation rates.
At the three-year point, the cost per degree was lower in ASAP than in the control condition.

Doubling Graduation Rates: Three-Year Effects of CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) for Developmental Education Students

Intensive Case Management Improves Welfare Clients’ Rates of Entry and Retention in Substance Abuse Treatment

Ife Floyd — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 20:35:35 +0000

The purpose of this report is to present preliminary findings of a study conducted in New Jersey comparing the rates of entry and retention in substance abuse treatment for two contrasting intervention approaches: Care Coordination and Intensive Case Management. In Care Coordination, welfare recipients were screened for substance abuse problems by caseworkers in welfare offices. Women screening positive were interviewed in welfare offices by specially trained addiction counselors to determine the need for substance abuse treatment and to coordinate treatment, if needed. The alternative approach, Intensive Case Management, combined several strategies thought to be effective in enhancing substance abuse treatment retention and improving outcomes. In Intensive Case Management, welfare recipients screening positive and needing treatment were assigned to a case management team. In addition, clients in ICM received small incentives in the form of vouchers for attending treatment. Preliminary findings clearly indicate the benefits of providing intensive case management services over a more limited triage and referral system. Clients referred to substance abuse treatment programs using the Intensive Case Management approach were much more likely to enter substance abuse treatment and were especially more likely to continue attending outpatient treatment sessions.

Intensive Case Management Improves Welfare Clients’ Rates of Entry and Retention in Substance Abuse Treatment

Evaluating Two Approaches to Case Management

Ife Floyd — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 15:00:03 +0000

Welfare program case management is usually organized in one of two ways. Under traditional case management, welfare recipients interact with two separate workers: one who deals with welfare eligibility and payment issues, often called income maintenance, and one who deals with employment and training issues. Under integrated case management, welfare recipients work with only one staff member who handles both the income maintenance and employment and training aspects of their case. This report presents the results of a random assignment study designed to evaluate the two case management approaches, and thus it addresses some longstanding issues in the management of welfare programs. Additionally, this report provides information on how the integrated and traditional programs were implemented, how they affected participation in employment-related activities, and the costs of providing employment-related services in the two programs. It also discusses program effects, measured three years after sample members’ entry into the study, on employment, earnings, and welfare receipt.

MDRC – Evaluating Two Approaches to Case Management: Implementation, Participation Patterns, Costs, and Three-Year Impacts of the Columbus Welfare-to-Work Program

Providing Specialized Personal and Work Support

Ife Floyd — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 18:22:42 +0000

Personal and work supports can be instrumental in helping TANF recipients living with disabilities prepare for and maintain employment. For many TANF recipients living with disabilities, the path to self-sufficiency is encumbered by personal and family challenges that interfere with steady employment. Recognizing that these TANF recipients may require more intensive support than is available through traditional employment programs, some TANF agencies have increased the intensity and/or types of supports available to those living with disabilities. Such supports may include intensive case management, rehabilitative services, job coaching, and support groups, among others. In this practice brief, we profile four programs that provide specialized personal and work supports to help TANF recipients living with disabilities succeed in competitive employment.

Mathematica – Providing Specialized Personal and Work Support