Tuesday, May 6, 2025
5/6/2025
Transforming Lives through Supported Employment - Community Alliance (CA), a CCBHC in Omaha, will expand its supported employment (SE) program and integrate SE services and principles throughout the organization through the Transforming Lives Through Supported Employment program. By serving 60 new, unduplicated clients annually and 300 over the course of the grant period, CA will reduce the unmet need for evidence-based SE among unemployed adult clients with SMI and COD by 50%. CA will use the grant as a springboard to develop a plan for meeting 100% of the need after the grant program ends. Members of the POF who currently receive clinical services at CA cope with very high levels of unemployment (87%). They also live in poverty: upon intake at CA, members of the POF have an average of only a little under $700 per month in income and one in four have no income at all. In a given year, only 8.5% of CA clients in the POF utilize current SE services, known as WorkSource. African American and American Indian clients are even less likely to gain access to SE services than are other clients. For the grant program, CA set significant goals for the POF, including a 100% increase in the number of adults in need who receive SE services; a concomitant 100% increase in the number of CA clients from the POF who become employed; a 50% reduction in self-reported unmet need for vocational services and supports; and a lowering of the unemployment rate from 87% to 65% among all adult clients at CA who have SMI or COD. The proposal outlines a feasible process of SE expansion and integration over the course of the five-year grant period, that includes the addition of four supported employment specialists, a peer employment support specialist, and a business/employer liaison to its existing SE program. Currently, half of WorkSource employment specialists are embedded in CA’s clinical teams, including First Episode Psychosis Care and Assertive Community Treatment, but through the grant program, CA will embed all new and existing employment specialists in six different clinical programs. CA will continue to embrace the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model of supported employment and will use the grant funding to expand training for WorkSource staff and achieve higher implementation fidelity in areas where WorkSource previously was found to be weaker. Fidelity of implementation will be assessed by six months in Year 1 and annually thereafter. Data and information from fidelity reviews, goal and objective progress monitoring, and NOMS-based outcomes will be used within a quality improvement framework to enhance WorkSource program access, quality and outcomes, while reducing racial/ethnic and other disparities. CA will develop a Business Advisory Council which will work collaboratively with WorkSource to identify and develop an increasing array of competitive employment opportunities for WorkSource clients and, at the same time, meet the workforce needs of Omaha area businesses and organizations.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).