Effective Employment Services for Persons with Mental Retardation

Evidence from the Social Security Administration's Transitional Employment Training Demonstration indicates that the overall performance of supported employment programs can be improved through program models that emphasize flexible and persistent services. The demonstration's rigorous statistical evidence on long-term program impacts, combined with detailed case-study evidence on program operations, indicates that the most successful programs had the capability and flexibility to tailor their services to the needs of each participant. Successful programs tended to develop jobs in a wide array of occupations and to provide services for a relatively long period. Furthermore, successful programs moved quickly to place and train participants in potentially permanent jobs and did not require all participants to start work in training jobs.