In July 1998, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) awarded $6.8 million in demonstration grants to 15 nonprofit organizations to provide employment and training services to persons with severe disabilities and to dislocated workers with disabilities. These projects emphasized quality of employment outcomes over the number of job placements, reflecting a strategy of enabling participants to live independently and productively over the long term.

BPA's evaluation of the Disability Employment Grants had four goals: 1) assessing the effectiveness of grantees in meeting their project objectives; 2) analyzing grantees' success in collaborating and coordinating with One-Stop Career Centers and state Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) agencies; 3) identifying innovative and "best" practices that grantees have implemented; and 4) examining the replicability of innovations, best practices, and project designs both within the workforce development system and for other disability employment service providers. The evaluation design included two major components:

• a qualitative study of grant practices and collaboration strategies that involved over 30 site visits to grantee central offices and services sites; and
• a quantitative study of participant characteristics, use of services, and employment outcomes.
  

BPA asked the grantees to construct an evaluation database that allowed analysis of the effectiveness of each grantee in assisting participants to enter and retain employment, the quality of the jobs they found, and the impacts of individual characteristics and services used on outcomes.

The evaluation's Final Report includes a number of recommendations to the grants program, the broader employment services community, and future research and evaluation efforts.

Publications:

Evaluation of the DOL Disability Employment Grants Services to Individuals with Disabilities Final Report (Jun, 2001) (PDF:1313KB)
Assessment of grantees and their success in collaborating and coordinating with One-Stop Career Centers and state Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) agencies. Also examines the replicability of innovations, best practices, and project designs both within the workforce development system and for other disability employment service providers.