Human Services News

From Urban Institute:

The Minnesota Integrated Services Projects focus on improving the delivery of employment, health, and social services to families who receive cash assistance and have serious or multiple barriers to employment.

Operating in eight sites, the project seeks to provide comprehensive assessments of participants' barriers, improve access to more complete services that address multiple needs, and coordinate services provided by multiple service systems.

This report examines the implementation of the projects, provides information on participants' demographic, economic and barrier-related characteristics, and describes changes in economic outcomes among participants within a short (six-month) follow-up period.

The passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) in 1996 set the course for a work-oriented welfare system by establishing the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program, requiring many welfare recipients to enter the labor market and imposing a lifetime limit on cash assistance of 60 months.

In 2005, the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) initiated a new effort that seeks to address the needs of long-term cash assistance recipients in the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP), many of whom are in danger of reaching their time limit on cash assistance benefits.

Reflecting its focus on bringing together multiple service systems to address the needs of this population, the project is known as the Minnesota Integrated Services Project (ISP).

Subsequent reports will track longer-term employment, earnings, welfare, and other outcomes for program participants and assess the extent to which the interventions were able to improve economic and other outcomes for these individuals.

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