State Partnership Initiative on Employment

The State Partnership Initiative of the Social Security Administration (SSA) was the first major effort sponsored by the President’s Task Force on Employment for Adults with Disabilities. SSA is leading this multi-agency project to test innovative ways to encourage people with disabilities to become employed. SSA has funded 12 states to develop and implement new methods to increase employment of people who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits. Six other states have received money from the Rehabilitation Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to promote work by people with disabilities who are receiving any type of public support.

Since 1998, SSA has contracted with Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) to monitor the states’ efforts. VCU, in turn, has subcontracted with Mathematica to conduct participation and outcome analyses. In addition, we are working with VCU and the states to develop quantitative measures of the interventions provided to each SSI or SSDI beneficiary in the state evaluations. Our staff are producing reports that profile participant characteristics, describe services received, and present results on employment outcomes.

We are also helping states refine their evaluation designs in order to produce policy-relevant information about the effects the projects have on employment and benefit receipt. As part of this role, we are producing SSA data extracts to provide the state projects with additional data to support their evaluations.

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