Recruiting and Engaging Adults with Justice Involvement in Employment Programs: Insights from the NextGen Project

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Introduction

Although a variety of employment programs offer adults with justice involvement support after their release, several challenges can limit participants’ ability to fully engage in services. This brief presents three strategies that staff of employment programs participating in the Next Generation of Enhanced Employment Strategies (NextGen) Project found helpful for recruiting and engaging adults with justice involvement in program activities: understanding and addressing participants’ needs, communicating with participants, and building relationships with local justice agencies.

Purpose

This brief provides strategies that human services programs can use to recruit adults with justice involvement. While it is focused on employment programs, these findings could apply to other human services programs working with this population.

Key Findings and Highlights

To help recruit and engage adults with justice involvement in programming, human services providers can find out what their urgent needs are and rapidly connect them to services that address those needs.

Being able to contact and connect with participants was essential for IPS providers to inform participants about job opportunities, introduce them to employers, coordinate travel to work or interviews, and provide ongoing support once they were hired.

Partnering with justice agencies and setting up referral systems was beneficial for both the IPS-AJI programs and the agencies, despite some barriers.

The findings in this brief are descriptive and cannot attest to the effectiveness of IPS-AJI.

Methods

Strategies highlighted in this brief are based on information from interviews with staff, participants, and leaders from five mental health centers in the Midwest and South that offered Individual Placement and Support for Adults with Justice Involvement (IPS-AJI). IPS is a model that aims to help people with serious mental illness find and work at competitive jobs of their choosing.

The brief also draws on discussions with IPS-AJI and other mental health center leaders and staff that were conducted as part of ongoing technical assistance for the NextGen Project.

Citation

Gina Lewis and Yuri Feliciano (2025). Recruiting and Engaging Adults with Justice Involvement in Employment Programs: Insights from the NextGen Project. OPRE Report #2025-016. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.