In the study sites, a diverse group of nonprofit organizations acts as intermediaries. The majority of these organizations are of two types: (1) local entities or local affiliates of national organizations that have a long history of providing employment-related services to disadvantaged populations and (2) organizations with expertise in addressing the supportive service, and sometimes the employment, needs of special populations such as ex-offenders, persons with disabilities, or persons who speak limited English. Only a few nonprofit organizations are new to the communities in which they provide services or have no experience providing employment services to or working with welfare recipients.
Local experienced providers. Cleveland Works and Community Renewal Team (CRT) of Greater Hartford are two examples of local nonprofit organizations that began operating as intermediaries long before the implementation of TANF. Both expect to serve over 500 TANF recipients. Cleveland Works has been providing services to disadvantaged residents of Cleveland since 1986. In addition to job search and placement assistance, Cleveland Works also provides specialized services to help ex-offenders find employment and to help low-income adults address legal issues (such as poor credit) that affect their ability to find or sustain employment. CRT is one of the oldest community action agencies in the nation, providing job development and social service programs to low-income families in the Hartford area since 1963.
Organizations with expertise in serving hard-to-employ populations. Three organizations — Marc, Inc. (Greater Hartford), St. Paul Rehabilitation Center (SPRC), and the Intercultural Mutual Assistance Association (IMAA — Olmsted County MN) are examples of TANF and WtW intermediaries that were founded to provide employment assistance to populations with special needs. SPRC was founded in the 1940s to provide — and has historically provided — physical, occupational, and speech therapy services in the community. It currently provides intensive rehabilitation and employment services to TANF recipients, refugees, the homeless, and persons with developmental disabilities or mental illness. Similarly, Marc, Inc. started providing employment services 50 years ago when it began operating a sheltered workshop for developmentally disabled adults. It now focuses on placing persons with developmental disabilities, and recipients of General Assistance and TANF in unsubsidized employment in the community. IMMA was founded to respond to the needs of refugees; prior to the implementation of TANF, it was funded primarily through grants from the Office of Refugee Resettlement. IMAA's staff of 16 offers services in 12 different languages. In addition to employment services, IMAA provides crime-prevention and youth/family services.
Local affiliates of national organizations. Local affiliates of national nonprofit organizations act as intermediaries for TANF recipients in 8 of the 10 urban areas. However, they do not operate in any of the rural areas. The organizations represented as intermediaries in the study sites include the Salvation Army, Lutheran Social Services, SER/Jobs for Progress, Catholic Charities, Urban League, Goodwill Industries, and Jewish Social Services. The services these organizations provide depend on the community in which they are located, rather than on their national affiliation. For example, Goodwill Industries provides mentoring and job retention services in Jacksonville and San Antonio, job search and placement assistance in Cleveland, and comprehensive services including case management in Omaha. Most of these organizations expect to serve between 100 and 300 TANF recipients. The exception is Catholic Charities of San Diego, which expects to serve 2,000 recipients.
New organizations. A few of the nonprofit organizations were started specifically to help TANF recipients make the transition to employment. Trust House (Hartford) and Consensus Organizing Institute (San Diego) illustrate the diverse roots and goals of these new organizations. Trust House is a small organization started by a group of Catholic nuns who wanted to help TANF recipients and other low-income residents in East Hartford, an area with a high concentration of poverty and public housing developments, find employment. Trust House expects to provide tutoring, and job search and placement assistance to 40 TANF recipients; it also provides enrichment programs for the children of the TANF recipients who participate in their program. Consensus Organizing Institute (San Diego) began operating in 1997 to provide employment opportunities to residents in low-income communities in San Diego. Currently, the institute is working with Pacific Bell to train TANF recipients to become customer service representatives. Pacific Bell has agreed to hire those who complete the training as full-time employees.
Like the nonprofit organizations that act as intermediaries, the for-profit intermediaries represent a diverse group of businesses; while some have been providing employment services to welfare recipients for many years, others are new to the employment service arena. Most of the for-profit intermediaries are large organizations with a national presence, although a few are smaller local organizations.
Experienced providers with a national presence. Maximus is a large for-profit company that began providing case management and employment services to welfare recipients before welfare reform. Maximus describes itself as the largest private-sector provider of job-readiness training and employment-related services to the disadvantaged. It expects to serve 2,800 TANF recipients in San Diego and 4,000 in Phoenix (Maricopa County). In Phoenix, Maximus will not only provide comprehensive employment services including case management but will also determine eligibility for TANF benefits. If successful in this endeavor, Maximus will gradually take over full responsibility for the management and operation of Arizona's TANF program.
Curtis and Associates is the only for-profit company to operate in one of the smaller rural sites. Like Maximus, Curtis has been providing employment services for welfare recipients for some time. Although Curtis does not act as an intermediary in any of the other study sites, it plays this role in 12 other states. Curtis also produces a job search curriculum for use in its own programs and in job search programs that are operated by other intermediaries.
New providers with a national presence. Like Maximus, Lockheed Martin IMS expects to serve large numbers of TANF recipients in two of the study sites, Jacksonville (750) and San Diego (3,500). However, in contrast to Maximus, Lockheed Martin IMS had no experience providing employment services prior to the implementation of welfare reform. The company saw a niche in the environment it felt qualified to fill and is now acting as an intermediary in five states, including nine sites in Florida.
Local organizations. Creative Connections in New London is one of the few local for-profit organizations that acts as an intermediary. Creative Connections is a small consulting firm that designs and delivers customized training and consulting services. Other smaller, more locally based for-profit companies that are new to the employment and training arena include Ross Learning in Cleveland and Career T.E.A.M. in Connecticut. Ross learning is an operator of proprietary schools that began providing employment services to TANF recipients in Michigan when the state shifted to a work-first model of service delivery. Career T.E.A.M. provides employment services to TANF recipients in many localities in Connecticut. Career T.E.A.M. was started to provide employers with a resource to identify and hire welfare recipients who would meet their hiring standards.
Businesses. In a few of the study sites, businesses act as intermediaries. For example, in San Antonio, Marriott operates the Pathways program, a short-term hospitality training program for TANF recipients offered in many areas across the country. In Little Rock, the Arkansas Hospitality Association works with a local intermediary to provide job coaches for TANF recipients transitioning to employment at one of three hotels — Doubletree, La Quinta, and the Excellcer. In Jefferson County, Arkansas, Tyson's Chicken has agreed to place 200 TANF recipients in its chicken processing plant for a 60-day subsidized employment program and provide a mentoring coach to each recipient for the first year of employment. Tyson's provides 8 hours of leave for educational purposes for every 32 hours worked for individuals who stay beyond the 60-day subsidized employment period.
A variety of educational institutions play a significant role in linking welfare recipients with jobs, especially in the rural sites. Community colleges, adult education programs, and local school districts all act as intermediaries. The North Florida Community College provides employment services for TANF recipients in Suwanee and five other counties in northern Florida; it also operates the One-Stop Career Center for the six-county region. Southeast Arkansas Community College provides workplace training, and job placement and retention services to TANF recipients in Jefferson County. Case managers at the college also help clients develop contingency plans for times when regular child care and transportation services are not available.
In San Diego, Sweetwater School District works with Maximus to facilitate workshops and provide case management for the welfare recipients who are enrolled in Adult Basic Education classes. The school district also manages a collaborative that operates a career center for low-income families. The Columbiana County Career Center, a vocational school that serves high school students and adults, is the primary intermediary in Columbiana County. The career center has worked with the welfare department to provide adult education and training opportunities for welfare recipients since 1987. It currently provides job search and placement assistance along with two short-term training programs.
A broad range of public agencies act as intermediaries for TANF clients. However, because the relationship between the welfare office or other relevant TANF administrative entity and other public agencies is not always a contractual one, the role public agencies play in helping to link welfare recipients with jobs is easy to overlook. In fact, although we do not classify welfare offices as intermediaries in several of the study sites they perform exactly the same functions as intermediaries. In San Diego, the county human service department operates the TANF employment program in two of the county's six regions. In St. Paul, a specialized unit with the county welfare department acts as an intermediary. In Phoenix, employment services staff conduct a formal two-week job search assistance program and work with employers to identify job openings for welfare recipients.
In addition to these in-house arrangements, some of the sites use other public or quasi-public agencies as intermediaries. For example, several of the sites use local JTPA agencies to provide employment services directly to welfare recipients. This arrangement is especially common in the rural areas. In Hartford, the workforce development board currently provides all case management services to TANF, but these services will be contracted out beginning next year. Cleveland and San Antonio use the local public housing authority as an intermediary. In Uvalde, Texas, the Middle Rio Grand Development Council, a quasi-governmental organization that was started as a commission to work with local elected officials, acts as an intermediary for TANF clients; it also operates the One-Stop Career Center for the county.
Top of Page
Contents of This Section
Table of Contents of Report
Executive Summary
Introduction
Defining the Roles and Responsibilities of
Intermediaries
Implementation of the “Intermediary”
Function
Lessons Learned and Next Steps
Appendix A: Site Descriptions
Appendix B: Examples of Organizations Functioning
as Intermediaries
Appendix C: Number of Intermediaries by Type of
Organization
Home Pages:
Human Services Policy
(HSP)
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
(ASPE)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS)
Last updated 06/01/00