Promoting Readiness of Minors in SSI (PROMISE)

Description

PROMISE was a joint project with the Departments of Education, Labor, and Health and Human Services to promote positive outcomes for children who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and their families. The goal of PROMISE was to improve the provision and coordination of services to promote education and employment outcomes resulting in long-term reductions in the child’s reliance on SSI. The Department of Education awarded cooperative agreements to States to implement PROMISE, and we evaluated the model demonstration projects. The Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services provided support for the project. The States proposed and implemented their own unique models, but all PROMISE project interventions included the following, at minimum:

Partnerships among State agencies responsible for programs that play a key role in providing services to the target populations;
Family outreach, recruitment, and involvement; and
Services including:

Case management;
Benefits counseling;
Career and work-based learning experiences; and
Parent/guardian training and information.

We convened a technical advisory panel in December 2011 to help prioritize the evaluation needs of this project. We awarded a contract to Mathematica Policy Research to conduct the national evaluation of the PROMISE projects. The first States began enrolling youths and providing services in the spring of 2014. Project enrollment continued through spring 2016, and services continued through late 2018 (or into 2019 in some States). The evaluation ended in January 2023. Planning, design, and evaluation reports are posted below.