Teens With Disabilities Go to Work Through Arkansas PROMISE Project

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – About 350 Arkansas teenagers who are enrolled in the PROMISE project started summer jobs in June.

The PROMISE project, based at the University of Arkansas, is funded by a five-year, $32.4 million federal grant to the College of Education and Health Professions and the Arkansas Department of Education. Its goal is to improve the career and education outcomes of low-income Arkansas teens with disabilities who receive Supplemental Security Income. The program funds paid work experiences, the first for many of the teens, who are between the ages of 14 and 16.

Danielle Johnson, 14, of the Benton area will be a ninth-grader in the fall. She is working at a local business that offers day care for dogs as well as boarding and grooming. Her mother, Patricia Johnson, said Danielle loves animals and spent her first six-hour shift feeding, walking and cleaning up after dogs. She brings dogs to the groomers and gets to play with them, too. Danielle has an intellectual disability.

Philip Adams, project director, said Arkansas PROMISE leads in recruiting teens among the six sites funded in 2013 by the U.S. Department of Education. PROMISE is an acronym for “Promoting Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income.”

“Going into the summer, our numbers look great,” Adams said. “We are leading the nation in our project recruiting goals by percentage of target achieved, ahead of the other states that received funding.”

Arkansas PROMISE passed the 50 percent mark for enrollment early in May. As of the end of May, 1,124 teens were enrolled in the program. The goal is to enroll 2,000 teens by April 30, 2016. The 2,000 youth will be divided into two groups, with half receiving the services that include job coaching and benefits counseling, and the other half serving as a control group that does not receive services beyond what they usually receive. So far, 572 teens have been randomly assigned to the group that will receive the additional services and have summer work experiences. The 350 working this summer are those who had enrolled by a March 1 cutoff date. The time was needed to prepare them for their work experiences, said Brent Thomas Williams, principal investigator of the federal grant and associate professor of rehabilitation education and research.

Each youth and family works primarily with three state agencies leading up to the work experience, Adams said. A person called a connector, who is employed by the U of A, supports the household’s needs and engagement with PROMISE services and existing resources. A transition specialist with Arkansas Rehabilitation Services assists the youth with school-based transition services and special education accommodations. A job coach with the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services collects information from the youth, connector and transition specialist to match the youth with an employer based on the youth’s interests and long-term career goals. Sources for Community Independent Living Services in Fayetteville is contracted to provide benefits counseling for the families.

The start of the summer work experience varies by region, Adams said, but the majority of the teens enrolled in PROMISE began working between June 1 and June 16. Families have been participating in monthly training sessions since January, leading up to the job placements. Personnel with state agencies are also working with employers to determine reasonable accommodations needed by some of the teens.

Two organizations based in the College of Education and Health Professions – Partners for Inclusive Communities and CURRENTS (the Center for the Utilization of Rehabilitation Resources for Education, Networking, Training and Service) – provide additional training services for PROMISE. The Clinton Health Matters Initiative, an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, is also a strategic partner, working to engage employers with the project and will provide support to improve the health outcomes for the teen PROMISE participants and their families.

In addition to the numerous collaborative relationships among agencies built into the program, more than 100 PROMISE staff members and external liaisons based throughout the state take part in a monthly conference call to share information with each other.

“You are doing monumental work,” Adams said during the May conference call. “And, it is greatly appreciated.”

About Arkansas PROMISE: Brent T. Williams, associate professor of rehabilitation education and research at the University of Arkansas, is the principal investigator of the PROMISE grant and oversees the project. The PROMISE project is a joint initiative of four federal agencies: the departments of education, health and human services, labor and the Social Security Administration. Its underlying premise is that improved coordination between services can improve outcomes for youth and their families. Its goals also include decreasing reliance on SSI and reducing the cost to the federal government. The grant was submitted through a partnership between the university, the Arkansas Department of Education and other state agencies.

About the Clinton Health Matters Initiative: The Clinton Health Matters Initiative (CHMI) works to improve the health and well-being of people across the United States by activating individuals, communities, and organizations to make meaningful contributions to the health of others. CHMI works to implement evidence-based systems, environmental and investment strategies, with the goals of ultimately reducing the prevalence of preventable diseases, reducing health care costs associated with preventable diseases, and improving the quality of life for people across America. CHMI works to activate individuals to lead healthier lives by providing a platform to access local, scalable solutions for healthy change agents; advance community health by closing gaps in health disparities and focusing efforts in underserved areas; and, engage the private sector through pledges to improve the health and well-being of the nation. These successes are showcased each January at the Health Matters conference, where national thought leaders convene to discuss ways in which individuals, communities, and corporations can contribute to the health of others.