Travelers Aid

The Program Serves a Population with Great Needs:
This program provides transportation assistance to low income adults and families in the Mon Valley (the majority of whom will be referred by the Heritage Health Foundation), who are either enrolled in Heritage's Braddock Employment Training Center program or are newly employed and finding transportation to be a barrier in accessing child care services while maintaining employment.  The program targets single female heads of households, 80% of whom are expected to earn less than $24,000 per year.  Targeted geographic areas include Braddock, Clairton, Duquesne, East Pittsburgh, and Rankin.  A majority of program participants are expected to be African American.  United Way funds provide transportation assistance (bus tickets) to program participants and will not be used for program administration costs.

The Program Achieves Measurable Results:
Travelers Aid has a long history of successfully increasing client participation rates and accomplishment of outcomes with a wide variety of partners (from pre-natal clinics to employment programs) where transportation was identified as a barrier.  Data collected from over 3,500 participants enrolled with other employment sites have achieved the following outcomes:

• 20% improve in clients reaching 180 days work retention
• 23% decrease employment program dropout rates
• 70% reduction in number of days required to locate employment
• 21% reduction in missed work
• 27% reduction in reporting to work late

The Program Utilizes A Sound Approach:
Travelers Aid's approach is based on more than 10 years of consistent evaluation of their program initiatives and the implementation of lessons learned into their model of service delivery.  In 2006 Dr. Hide Yamatani of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Social Work conducted a year long study, “Travelers Aid Employment Transportation Assistance Program Evaluation Report”, of the agency's employment and training program practices and outcomes.  Highlights of his findings were that:  1) there is a return of $5.64 for every dollar invested in the program in increased wages for participant; 2) annual income gain from job retention participants was $1,031 over non-participants; and 3) annual income gain for job search participants was $2,178 compared to non-participants.  This agency consistently utilizes the data it collects to refine its existing program models and to identify new opportunities with great potential for success, such as what is proposed for this RFP.  Other communities, such as Philadelphia, are already exploring possibilities for replicating the models that Travelers Aid has developed.  Their potential to continue to achieve community-wide impact at this level is highly likely.

The Proposal is Aligned with Preferred Outcomes:
This program aligns with the following preferred RFP outcomes:

• Secure and Maintain Employment
  • 186 individuals will complete training representing 11% reduction in job training dropout rates
  • 108 will locate employment representing a 20% increase over current program rates