1. The WPRP advisory board shall urge the State of California’s Departments of Social Services (DSS) and/or Employment Development (EDD) to secure such funds as are necessary to purchase additional California sites to parallel the forthcoming federal ERA experiment.
2. WPRP shall make its first-year grant award of $250,000 to MDRC, effective as soon as possible, but not later than July 1, 2000. With this grant, MDRC shall review a number of counties’ post-employment services and, in consultation with DSS and EDD officials, select up to five counties that operate promising post-employment services and that are willing to participate in an experimental-design evaluation.
3. WPRP’s second- and third-year grants ($250,000 per year) shall be made only if the following three conditions are met: (a) DSS and/or EDD secure sufficient additional funds to conduct an experimental-design evaluation of post-employment services in the counties they have selected; (b) DSS and/or EDD issue a timely RFP and select MDRC or another qualified organization to conduct an experimental-design evaluation; and (c) the winning proposal is judged and selected on the merits of the proposal (not on a minimally qualified/low-bid basis).
4. If these conditions are not met, the WPRP advisory board shall reconsider whether: (a) to make some or all of the remaining $500,000 available for further post-employment services work by MDRC (e.g., directing MDRC to collect additional information at the California site or sites included in the federal ERA study) or (b) to reserve some or all of the funds for other WPRP research purposes.
NOTE: Only the first year of the potential three year research project was ultimately funded.