Broadened Horizons, Brighter Futures (BHBF)

BHBF began with an initial orientation interview with participants over the phone or in person at participants’ homes or the BHBF office. CEDS conducted these interviews and initiated a PCP process during this meeting. The PCP helped the participants identify their goals in education, employment, and independent living. BHBF also included waivers to SSA program rules that increased the amount of earnings disregarded when calculating benefits; decreased the rate benefits were reduced as earnings increased; extended benefits for those in danger of losing them at age 18 or when their case was re-reviewed; and excluded certain financial accounts from asset calculations.

BHBF consisted of multiple program components:

• Case management and work-readiness activities. CEDS worked with participants and their families to turn goals into an individualized plan for employment. CEDS provided case management services focused on employment and education. Participants also received soft-skills training, career-readiness education, and counseling. Those enrolled in school received academic guidance and support. In addition, CEDS advised participants on using job search strategies and tools, helped organize job fairs for participants, conducted mock interviews and job site tours, and held larger job preparation workshops for all BHBF participants.


• Benefits planning and financial education. Within a month of enrollment BHBF participants met with a benefits specialist for one-on-one benefits planning. The benefits specialist briefed the participant on the SSA waivers available through the program. Benefits specialists helped set up each participant’s IDA, which provided participants with two-to-one matching funds for up to $2,000 in earnings deposited by an individual, or up to $4,000 in earnings deposited by a family per year. Benefit specialists also provided one-on-one planning with participants throughout their time in BHBF, helping identify other benefits and supportive services available to participants after leaving BHBF. The Human Services Coalition provided two annual financial education workshops for BHBF participants and their families.


• Work experience and job development. CEDS worked with a designated employment specialist at each BHBF office to coordinate work-based experiences for participants, such as job shadowing, volunteer activities, internships, summer youth employment, and on-the-job training, that would help participants obtain paid competitive employment. The CEDS and employment specialist also worked with area employers to develop pipelines for work-based experiences and opportunities for full-time employment.


• Follow-up services and employment coaching. CEDS checked in with participants frequently in the first few weeks after they secured employment. They also provided short-term job coaching and referrals to long-term job coaching and other services from the Florida Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. Benefits specialists reviewed the conditions and reporting requirements for the SSA work incentives and waivers with participants.

BHBF was well-implemented by program management, but implementation varied across offices. For example, one BHBF office preferred to do initial assessments at the participant’s home so they could assess the home environment, whereas the other office preferred to conduct interviews at their location to reduce travel time and encourage participants to secure transportation independently.

Implementation also differed from the initial program design in several ways. First, program staff focused on case management and preemployment services during the first year of the intervention but had little success moving participants into full-time employment. BHBF staff renewed their focus on the employment component in the second year of the intervention, which led to a considerable increase in placements for work-based experiences and full-time employment. Second, some CEDS were less comfortable interacting with employers than providing services to participants, so BHBF changed its recruiting practices to hire CEDS with previous experience engaging employers. This made recruiting CEDS more difficult but improved BHBF’s overall performance in moving participants into employment. Third, though TransCen, Inc., provided technical assistance to CEDS on the customized employment, or “job carving,” approach to job development and placement, CEDS rarely used this assistance and instead focused on placing participants in existing job openings. Finally, the authors found that less than 1 percent of participants opened IDAs in the first 12 months after random assignment. Staff faced great difficulty helping participants set up these accounts, and participants had trouble saving their earnings from employment to deposit into these accounts.