The Veterans Coordinated Approach to Recovery and Employment (Veterans CARE) is a $5.1 million Pay for Success initiative that supports unemployed or underemployed Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in attaining competitive, compatible employment. The project is a partnership of Social Finance, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, local governments, and impact investors.
Through Veterans CARE, local VA medical centers will deliver Individual Placement and Support (IPS), a personalized approach to supported employment, to up to 500 Veterans over three years. Government partners will repay project investors if and only if the project demonstrates positive outcomes for Veterans.
The Veterans CARE project is the first PFS project in the United States to focus on improving employment and health outcomes for Veterans, and is the first multi-state project of its kind.
Goals of the project
- Support unemployed or underemployed Veterans with PTSD in attaining competitive, compatible employment
- Expand high quality, evidence-based employment services to Veterans who can’t currently access these services
- Serve as a demonstration project for the use of the Pay for Success model within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
How It Works
Consortium of government partners
Make payments if outcomes are achieved
Social Finance
Develop project, mobilize capital, manage for results
Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center
Facilitate delivery of IPS
Program participants
Achieve sustained, meaningful employment
Westat
Measure outcomes
Impact Investors
Provide upfront capital
Video: Army Veteran George Robertson, Social Finance’s Tracy Palandjian, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, City of Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, and other partners discuss the Veterans CARE Pay for Success Project
Key Resources
- Project Video
- Press Release
- Fact Sheet
- Video from BNP Paribas
- “Supporting Veterans With PTSD: Enabling an Individualized Approach to Job Search and Placement,” Social Finance
Partners
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs provided $3 million in outcomes payments for the project.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the City of Boston serve as matching outcomes payors for this project.
The Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center will support local VA medical centers to offer Individual Placement and Support, an evidence-based employment service, for Veterans with PTSD.
Social Finance supported the design and financial structuring of the project, raised the capital, and will provide active performance management services for the duration of the project.
Westat will lead the evaluation of the project.
Jones Day is serving as legal counsel to Social Finance for this project.
Wilmington Trust is serving as fiscal agent and custodian for this project.
Funders
The project’s funders include:
In the News
- “‘Government only pays for the positive outcomes.’ A strikingly new approach to social problems,” The Washington Post
- “‘Pay for Success’: An idea with bipartisan appeal,” Governing
- “Social Impact Bonds: Something Democrats and Republicans agree on,” Forbes
- “A new public finance tool to help the most vulnerable,” Time