Enhanced Employment Services for Victims of Trafficking Demonstration

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The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, in cooperation with the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), in the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, intends to award up to two cooperative agreements under the Enhanced Employment Services for Victims of Trafficking Demonstration funding opportunity announcement to examine the feasibility and benefits of providing enhanced employment services to pre-certified, foreign trafficking victims and other foreign trafficking victims who are currently ineligible for the ORR Matching Grant Program services. Currently, victims of trafficking can receive case management services through grantees funded by ORR and by the Office for Victims of Crime in the U.S. Department of Justice. When a victim of trafficking receives a Certification or Eligibility Letter from ORR, he or she is eligible for federal and state benefits and services to the same extent as a refugee, including, in the case of adults, the Matching Grant Program, which has a strong record of assisting participants find jobs and achieve economic self-sufficiency. To be eligible for the Matching Grant Program, adult trafficking victims must have received a Certification or Eligibility Letter from ORR and are required to enroll within 31 days of eligibility. Grantees provide services that must include case management, maintenance assistance (cash assistance and housing, when needed), and employment services; they may also make referrals for additional services such as English-language training, social adjustment services, health and medical services, employment training/re-certification, and support services. The primary goal of the project is to examine whether engaging trafficking victims who are expected to receive Certification from ORR in enhanced pre-employment services can improve self-sufficiency outcomes. These services are intended to complement – not duplicate – services provided by ORR grantees providing case management to trafficking victims. A secondary goal is to demonstrate and evaluate the provision of comprehensive services – similar to those provided in the Matching Grant Program – to foreign victims of trafficking who have work authorization but are not eligible for Matching Grant services. The desired outcome for all participants is self-sufficiency. Projects funded under this FOA are considered demonstration projects. As such, each grantee is required to conduct an evaluation that will examine whether and how services are successfully provided to the defined target population, and examine the achievement of self-sufficiency among service recipients, whether directly through the services provided under this grant or following transition from these services to the Matching Grant Program or other employment services. Each successful applicant will prepare a final evaluation report.

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