information for practice

For at least three decades, policymakers, researchers, and program operators have developed and studied strategies to improve employment outcomes for people who face serious obstacles to steady work. Interest in the hard-to-employ surged in the 1990s, when the strong economy, rising employment, and dramatic declines in the welfare caseload all combined to focus a spotlight on groups who had been left behind. For the first time on a large scale, welfare agencies began developing or brokering services for recipients with mental health conditions, substance abuse problems, disabilities, and other serious barriers to work. Parallel changes were occurring in other systems: Criminal justice officials began to focus on the daunting problems facing prisoners returning to their communities, and the rapid growth of disability programs led policymakers to look for ways to encourage work among beneficiaries.