A New Approach for Government

Social Finance recently launched the Veterans Coordinated Approach to Recovery and Employment (Veterans CARE) Pay for Success project in partnership with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, local governments, and impact investors. The project scales Individual Placement and Support, an individualized approach to employment services, for veterans with service-connected post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) — a condition that can make an already tough transition to the civilian workforce nearly impossible.

Veterans CARE is the first Pay for Success project to involve all levels of government and it is a powerful example of federal, state and city governments working together to support veterans in need. Developing a Pay for Success project requires commitment and resiliency from government partners, it requires the ability to move beyond identifying new solutions to old problems into the hard work of implementing them. Pay for Success continues to attract government partners because of the benefits it can offer all involved.

In this post, we dive deeper into the objectives of the Veterans CARE outcomes payors at the federal, state and city level.

Federal Government: The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began, more than 7 million Veterans have returned from combat and it is estimated that up to 20% of those returning have service-connected PTSD.

When VA first set out to develop a Pay for Success project in summer 2016, they had programs that assisted veterans seeking employment, but none specifically for veterans with PTSD. They knew that, for this population, employment can be hard to maintain and that the lack of employment can worsen PTSD symptoms.

Pay for Success offered VA the opportunity to scale a promising approach to supported employment — one that integrated mental health treatment with job placement — and to transfer the risk in doing so. If the intervention helped veterans with PTSD get and keep good jobs, then the VA would pay for those positive outcomes. And if not, then the VA would be off the hook.

With the Veterans CARE project, VA also has the opportunity to test implementation of a new program, tracking what works and what doesn’t along the way. If successful, the program could be introduced in other counties and states, even scaled nationwide, to serve veterans.

State Government: Massachusetts

Similar to VA, the Commonwealth offers a number of key resources to help veterans transition to the civilian workforce. In addition to federally funded workforce programs such as the Veterans Employment and Training Services Program (VETS), which is available nationwide, Massachusetts offers additional assistance through its 34 One-Stop Career Centers. These centers have dedicated veteran representatives who assist by providing job counseling and application preparation, veteran employment promotion, and help companies prepare to accept veterans with disabilities into their workplaces.

Like the VA, the Commonwealth saw an opportunity to expand employment services for veterans, specifically those with PTSD. As they did so, they wanted to ensure that positive outcomes, results, were front of mind.