Mdrc

Filing Period

Jan 1, 2011 to Dec 31, 2011

Signed

Nov 5, 2012

Return Version

2011v1.3

Gross Receipts

$56,125,677

Major Activities

Activity 2

Family Well-Being and Children's Development Children who grow up in poverty face much greater risks of academic failure, poor health, and emotional distress and, as adults, are more likely to be unemployed and poor. MDRC's studies on children and families are providing a new generation of reliable evidence for policymakers about strategies that benefit the social, emotional, and cognitive development of low-income children - some by improving the life prospects of parents and others by working directly with children. Our two-generation approaches hold the most promise, as developmental theory predicts that improving outcomes for both parents and children together has more powerful effects than focusing on either generation alone. For two decades, MDRC has been a leader in an expanding field of research that examines how children are affected by welfare reform and other social policies that are primarily designed to affect the employment and income status of their parents. We continue to collect data on children in our studies of programs focused on parents' access to financial work supports, educational attainment, and career advancement, and we are learning which particular approaches to improving families' economic well-being are more beneficial to children. MDRC is studying several initiatives that seek to benefit children by building healthier family relationships. For instance, MDRC is the lead evaluator of the federal government's $1.5 billion investment in home visiting programs, which provide preventive services to families with young children to prevent child maltreatment, improve maternal and child health outcomes, and increase school readiness. In the Supporting Healthy Marriage project, we are testing relationship education programs for low-income married couples. Our child care and early education studies aim to deepen policymakers' understanding of the effects of early care environments, including Head Start, both as a support for employment and as a context that directly affects children's development. A current focus of our early education work has been on developing and testing programs that bolster the emotional and behavioral development of preschoolers. Finally, MDRC is the lead in the Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project, an unprecedented opportunity to apply and test insights about the science of decision-making in the context social assistance programs areas and populations supported by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Selected highlights in 2011: - Implemented the Head Start CARES Project, which is examining the effects and implementation of a set of evidence-based strategies to improve the social and emotional development of children in more than 100 Head Start centers across the country. - Published a practitioners' toolkit with lessons from the Supporting Health Marriage Demonstration, which is testing relationship and marriage skills programs for low-income married couples. - Released final results from an evaluation of a telephonic care management program Medicaid recipients with depression. - Released implementation and early impact findings from a random assignment evaluation of two Early Head Start programs that were enhanced with formalized services to proactively address parents' employment, educational, and self-sufficiency needs. - Was awarded the Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation (MIHOPE) from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Home visiting programs provide preventive services to families with young children to prevent child maltreatment, improve maternal and child health outcomes, and increase school readiness. - Conducted a series of technical assistance webinars on evaluation for federal home visiting grantees. - Launched the Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) Project, the first major opportunity to apply a behavioral research le

Activity 3

Health and Barriers to Employment MDRC was originally established to study programs for the "hard-to-employ," Americans who face serious obstacles to finding and keeping steady work. Our very first project, the National Supported Work Demonstration, tested the impact of paid work experience for long-term welfare recipients, ex-offenders, high school dropouts, and substance abusers, and it is still regarded as one of the most comprehensive sources of evidence on employment programs targeted to these groups. Today we are testing tailored interventions for specific hard-to-employ groups - people with work-limiting disabilities; those with physical, mental health, or substance abuse problems; long-term welfare recipients; and recipients who have failed in "work-first" programs. MDRC has built a portfolio of projects testing innovative strategies to enhance health care services and health outcomes for low-income people, with a particular focus on services for individuals with health- and disability-related barriers to employment. At the same time, we are testing programs for ex-prisoners and low-income people who are dependent on federal disability assistance. In addition, MDRC has a growing portfolio of projects focused on disconnected youth, which includes the Youth Transition Demonstration and evaluations of YouthBuild, the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program, and Youth Villages. The findings of our new studies as they emerge will dramatically expand the body of knowledge about how to address particular barriers to employment - and how to implement effective programs in the different public assistance, enforcement, and service delivery systems that interact with the hard-to-employ population. Selected highlights from 2011: - Released final results from MDRC's evaluation of National Guard Youth ChalleNGe, an intensive, "quasi-military" residential program for high school dropouts. The positive findings from this study have played a part in greater federal and philanthropic investment in the ChalleNGe program. - Published final results from the Accelerated Benefits Demonstration, which tested (in one of the only random assignment evaluations of health care insurance ever conducted) the effects of earlier access to health care coverage and related services for new Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries. - Published the final report from an evaluation of a telephonic care management program for Medicaid recipients with depression. - Released the final report from a long-term evaluation of a transitional jobs program for welfare recipients in Philadelphia and launched two large-scale federal evaluations of enhanced transitional jobs programs. - Published a report that reviews the experience of the largest subsidized employment initiative in the country since the 1970s: In 2009-2010, states placed more than 250,000 people in subsidized jobs using the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Emergency Fund established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. - MDRC President Gordon Berlin delivered an address, "The Labor Market After the Great Recession: Implications for Income Support Policy," at the principal federal welfare research conference. MDRC later published the speech. - Published interim site reports from The Youth Transition Demonstration, which is developing and evaluating strategies to help youth with disabilities transition from school to work. - Launched an evaluation of the Youth Villages Transitional Living Program in Tennessee. - Selected subgrantees for the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation's Social Innovation Fund Initiative, which is replicating promising programs for disconnected youth in communities around the country. - Launched a pilot program to help returning veterans with disabilities, including post-traumatic stress disorder, to improve their employment outcomes. - Continued work on the TANF/SSI Disability Transition Project, which seeks to better understand the relationshi

Filer

EIN

23-7379473