Boston University and Community Work Services announce initial Study results to improve job retention rate among Homeless with disabilities; Comprehensive case management can return up to $25,000 annually for each person.

BOSTON -- Boston University and Community Work Services (CWS) announce the release of new study findings that demonstrate savings in Social Services cost of over $25,000 per person each for each homeless persons transitioned to permanent employment. The study has just been released by a team of researchers from Boston University's (BU) Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and Community Work Services (CWS), a leading Boston-based vocational rehabilitation agency.

In announcing the release of the study results, Serena Powell, Executive Director of Community Work Services said, "CWS is pleased to been able to actively participate in this ground breaking project that begins to quantify the 'best practices' of effective case management in helping homeless people with disabilities contribute positively to society through gainful employment."

"Current social service programs often focus on one or two life issues that keep the homeless from productive employment," said Dr. William McCarriston, a co-principal investigator of the study, consultant and past Executive Director to Community Work Services. "At CWS we have spent years evolving techniques to acquire more effective and enduring employment for our clients. The study provides an empirical basis for techniques what many case managers have felt were effective for quite some time."

"We knew that individuals who were homeless could get jobs, but we also knew that they had significant difficulty sustaining employment and advancing in their jobs," explained Norman Hursh, associate professor of rehabilitation counseling at BU Sargent College and program committee member at CWS proposed the study to empirically determine methods of improving job acquisition and retention rates for chronically homeless individuals with significant disabilities. "We also studied effective employment models that could be put in place to improve the lives of homeless individuals within current programs. Our findings indicate that to ending homelessness must focus not only on finding permanent housing, but also on implementing services and programs that provide work and life supports."

The long term demonstration program has shown that successful employment for persons who are homeless is possible. Working with 30 experts in the field of homelessness and employment services, the study approach identified a significant number of potential job retention factors, studied these factors with a group of 40 homeless persons, and then expanded the study scope to over 140 homeless individuals.

Building on prior research performed at CWS, the joint study found that 'non-traditional' case management practices played a central role delivering positive long term impact to the employment of homeless persons with significant physical, mental and social disabilities. Coordination of training and skills development combined with support to resolve housing, legal, health care, benefits challenges within the framework of a meaningful, trusting and open relationship with a case manager was identified by participants as crucial to allowing individuals to establish work and life support structures that would sustain long term employment.

The study, funded by a grant from the U. S. Department of Education National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), identifies employment services that have positive impact on the long term employment prospects of homeless people with significant disabilities. The researchers expect to release additional results as analysis in this comprehensive study proceeds.

Boston University (BU) Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences is an institution of higher education, research and clinical centers whose premier academic programs prepare dynamic health professionals and whose research and leadership in the health and rehabilitation sciences is actively shaping health care. BU Sargent College is the only private institution in the country offering five nationally ranked graduate programs in health and rehabilitation sciences. For more information and to learn about degree programs in physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech, language and hearing sciences, health science, athletic training, nutrition, and rehabilitation counseling, visit http://www.bu.edu/sargent.

Community Work Services (CWS), makes it possible for the hardest-to-serve homeless and disabled populations to achieve self-sufficiency. Established in 1877, CWS is the oldest vocational rehabilitation organization in the United States, hailed by the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as "a program that works," the organization provides job training and support services. For more information about CWS and to view Research Briefs resulting from this study, visit http://www.cwsbos.com