Arkansas PROMISE meets recruitment goal in research project to help teens with disabilities

The federally-funded Arkansas PROMISE project has enrolled 2,000 teens with disabilities, more than two weeks ahead of the deadline and less than eight months after enrollment began in September 2014.

The “Promoting Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income” or PROMISE program is a joint research project of the federal Social Security Administration and the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Labor. It involves low-income teens ages 14-16 with disabilities who receive Supplemental Security Income benefits. Its purpose is to improve career and education outcomes so those young people rely less on SSI.

Teen workers with disabilities will have the opportunity for a job coach through a memorandum of understanding between the state’s University of Arkansas-based PROMISE program and Arkansas Rehabilitation Services.

Eleven states were awarded a total of $211 million in five-year grants in 2013. In Arkansas, a $32.5 million federal grant was awarded to the UA’s College of Education and Health Professions and the Department of Education. That grant – believed to be the largest in the history of the University of Arkansas – pays for arranging work experiences for participants and pays for their salaries. It also funds training in education, employment, health and wellness.

The Arkansas program was given a supplemental award of $3.3 million in 2015, with part of the boost to help employ recruitment coordinators through the life of the grant in 2018. Philip Adams, PROMISE project director, said recruiters will shift to the role of retention, including an incentive program to help keep teens and their families involved.

Half of the 2,000 teens will be involved in two 200-hour work experiences over five years, while the other half will receive only the typical services. The results of the study could make PROMISE a model for future programs managed by those four federal agencies.

In the summer of 2015, 278 PROMISE participants worked a total of 44,817 hours for 324 employers in 55 cities. Services are available in 25 counties, according to the University of Arkansas.

“I’m very excited and proud that we were able to reach such a huge accomplishment with the help of all of our staff and partners around the state,” Alejandro Ortiz, recruitment coordinator for the state, said in a UA statement. “We had to be creative and put a lot of effort into reaching families. I think our success was due to the collaborative nature of our recruitment efforts; we not only had regional recruitment staff working full time, other local staff members, partnering agencies and community organizations assisted with the process.”

Recruiting challenges included explaining the project to teens and their families and social service and employment agencies, while ensuring all participants were are of the research angle, Adams said

“There was a balance we had to maintain so they understand this is not just about getting the teens off Social Security but more importantly about setting and achieving goals for employment and education,” Adams said in the statement. “With support and exposure to work they wouldn’t have otherwise, we believe they will be better equipped as adults to make the choice between a monthly benefit and employment.”

Michael Gamel-McCormick, director of the Association of University Centers on Disabilities PROMISE Technical Assistance Center in Washington, has a network of 125 programs around the country to draw on for ideas, resources and training to help all the PROMISE projects, noted the UA statement. Arkansas, California, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin, and a consortium of six states – Utah, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Colorado and Arizona – received the PROMISE funding.

Other Arkansas PROMISE partners are the Arkansas Department of Health, Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, Arkansas Department of Workforce Services, Arkansas Workforce Centers, Arkansas Department of Human Services, Arkansas Department of Higher Education, Sources for Community Independent Living Services, the Clinton Foundation, Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, UA CURRENTS, Partners for Inclusive Communities and Arkansas Research Center.