Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program Initial Evaluation Report

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staff, but a large network of experienced vendors provides the bulk of services under
contracts with IDR.
IDR identified and recruited for TTW individuals it was already serving through its
existing contracts with insurance companies—clients who receive private long-term disability
and SSDI benefits. These beneficiaries seemed the most logical group to serve, and IDR
anticipated a high success rate. IDR also expected to elicit referrals from provider agencies in
the company’s national network of vendors, assuming that many of the smaller providers it
works with would be unable to afford the up-front costs of providing services under the
TTW payment schedule.
IDR also anticipated a small number of Ticket assignments from what staff refer to as
“retail clients”—individuals who contact IDR after receiving their Tickets. To convince
IDR’s Board of Directors to allow the firm to work with retail clients, staff had to conduct
extensive modeling to show that the firm was likely to succeed with this population. The
modeling had to demonstrate: that IDR had the ability to find employment for these clients;
that the probability of job retention among these individuals was high; and that it would be
feasible to track client earnings over 60 months. IDR did not anticipate that this group
would represent a large client base without significant marketing. Despite minimal outreach
efforts IDR ended up receiving a very high number of calls.
According to agency staff, extensive delays in receiving payments from SSA have made
the program so costly to operate that IDR can only afford to accept Tickets from
beneficiaries who it believes can be successfully placed with very low up-front costs. In
addition, IDR is accepting fewer Tickets from its retail clients and is accepting no Tickets
from those on SSI. IDR would like to accept a larger number of Tickets from beneficiaries
who may require more costly, long term services, but feels it is not financially viable to do so
at this time.
7. Marriott Foundation Bridges from School to Work
The Bridges program represents a substantially different service model than all the other
ENs studied. Officials decided to begin functioning as an EN in order to tap into an
additional funding source for the SSI youth that the Bridges program was already serving
through its youth employment program funded by the Workforce Investment Act (WIA)
and the Marriott Foundation. Bridges staff believed that as many as 50 percent of its WIA
clients were potentially eligible for TTW. By aggressively recruiting SSA beneficiaries to
participate in the youth employment program, Bridges hoped to use TTW funds to expand
its services. Staff believed that TTW funds could be used to provide longer-term job
retention and post-employment services to clients if Bridges could get them working at
SGA. The program seeks to place TTW clients in full-time jobs that pay $7 to $8 per hour.
Placements include hotel, laundry, fast food, janitorial, and clerical work. Their hope was
that the WIA funds would serve beneficiaries for the first 18 to 24 months and TTW
funding would be used to provide follow-up services.
V: Case Studies of Eight Experienced TTW Providers