BEES - Email to Contact Potential Informants

BUILDING EVIDENCE ON EMPLOYMENT STRATEGIES FOR LOW-INCOME FAMILIES PROJECT (BEES)

ATTACHMENT D

Email to Contact Potential Informants

[This email will be tailored, as needed for each individual.]

We would like to schedule time to speak with you about a new project launched in September 2017 by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The project, titled Building Evidence on Employment Strategies for Low-Income Families (BEES), aims to build the evidence base by evaluating innovative interventions designed to boost employment and earnings among low-income Americans. The project will also evaluate interventions serving those whose employment prospects have been affected by substance abuse or mental health challenges. The project is being conducted by MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, along with Abt Associates and MEF Associates.

We are currently seeking to identify interventions and sites to consider including in the evaluation. To that end, we would be grateful for the opportunity to speak with you. In our conversation, we hope to hear about the priority areas of programming in your [state, county, city] and about existing interventions that might be appropriate for a rigorous evaluation. Specifically, we would like to talk with you about the following areas:

• Your views on the purpose of employment services, who might benefit the most, and what interventions might be the most effective;

• Employment services and target groups within your [state, county, city];

• Intervention models or programs that you would recommend for consideration in the study.

We understand that you may not have information on all these areas, and that is okay. The evaluation team is attempting to gain an understanding of interventions in numerous areas, so whatever information you can provide will be helpful.

Our conversation will be kept private to the fullest extent of the law, and we expect that your name and affiliation will only be included in summary information provided to ACF. Participation is voluntary. We estimate that our discussion will take [X] hour(s).

Please let us know your availability for a call and if you have any questions. Thank you very much for considering participating in this important effort.

An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB number for referenced information collection is 0970-0356 and the expiration date is 03/31/2018.