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MD PROMISE, APHSA & 2 GEN

In 2013, the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Labor, and the Social Security Administration jointly funded an inter agency initiative to take aim at overcoming these barriers through a demonstration initiative called PROMISE. Promoting Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income, better known as PROMISE, was a rigorous randomized controlled study to evaluate practices aimed at improving employment and educational outcomes for low-income youth with disabilities.

The scale of the demonstration project was significant. Over 13,000 youth SSI recipients were recruited across New York, Wisconsin, Arkansas, California, Maryland, and ASPIRE (a six-state consortium including Arizona, Colorado, Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana), and the work of the demonstration sites resulted in knowledge and experience that should be used to inform activities and efforts at the federal, state and local level to improve the economic self-sufficiency of all youth, with and without disabilities, and their families. While the PROMISE intervention officially ended in 2018, key features continue to be implemented to support youth SSI recipients in achieving better education and employment outcomes.

This webinar series offers captures those lessons learned and offers strategies and information intended to inform human services professionals who work with youth and families receiving SSI — that I,s youth have both a disability and live in households with annual income levels at or below the federal poverty level.

Disability is often misunderstood — it is equated with being unable to work, or understood to mean work will result in loss of benefits that in turn would hinders youth and families’ opportunities for economic advancement. This webinar series offers more information to address that misperception and to provide human services professionals with information and tools that will equip you to most effectively provide holistic services and supports to these families in ways that facilitate their stability and economic mobility. The PROMISE initiative also aligns with 2GEN approaches to better serve youth and their families holistically.

MD PROMISE led a partnership between all the PROMISE sites and APHSA in 2019, through which APHSA hosted two 2019 PROMISE convening with thought and practice leaders leading public agencies that administer SNAP, TANF, child welfare, 2 GEN interventions and others. Leaders who assembled in 2019 explored ways to integrate the lessons of PROMISE into their agencies’ work in collaboration with that of other public sector and community-based partners This 2020 webinar series is an outgrowth of those meetings.

The work of PROMISE can serve as a foundation and a springboard for greater coordination and collaboration across disability services and human services. At greater scale, the next generation of work in this space has the potential to improve the lives of young people with disabilities, young people experiencing poverty, and in ultimately all those who seek ways to overcome barriers and forge pathways to employment and prosperity.