About MDRC
Johanna Walter serves as data manager on various evaluations, including the TANF-SSI Disability Transition Project and Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ. Walter has extensive experience with administrative records from a variety of providers, such as state welfare agencies, community colleges, the National Student Clearinghouse, health care management systems, and the National Directory of New Hires, as well as with survey and cost data. She has managed data collection, as well as data construction and analysis activities for a number of projects. Walter has also authored implementation and benefit-cost analyses for MDRC reports and papers.
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MDRC Publications
ReportPromising Results from a Bridge-to-College Model
May, 2020Bridge-to-college programs aim to help people complete high school and enroll in postsecondary education. This evaluation of one such program at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Green Bay, WI finds that it helped more students earn their GEDs and enroll in college courses.
ReportA Feasibility Study of the Bridges to Pathways Program
September, 2019In a program to reduce criminal justice involvement, participants received mentoring, case management, subsidized internships, and the opportunity to earn a high school credential. The program reduced the arrest rate for felonies and violent crimes but did not affect overall rates of arrest or incarceration, educational or training certification, or employment.
BriefBenefits and Costs of the RecycleForce Enhanced Transitional Jobs Program
June, 2018This benefit-cost analysis examines an Indianapolis program that offered subsidized jobs, case management, peer mentorship, and other support to former prisoners. The program reduced incarcerations and increased employment and earnings among participants, and the overall benefits to society from these effects outweighed program costs.
ReportDecember, 2017The Kansas Child Support Savings Initiative encourages parents to make deposits into tax-advantaged college savings plans in return for matching reductions in their child support debts. This report describes two randomized controlled trials conducted by Kansas and MDRC to test different methods of outreach and engagement.
ReportImplementation and Early Impacts of the STEP Forward Program
November, 2017This report presents implementation and interim impact findings from a random assignment evaluation of STEP Forward, a subsidized employment program in San Francisco serving a diverse group of low-income job seekers. In the first year, STEP Forward boosted employment and earnings, which suggests that participants obtained better jobs.
ReportThe Enhanced Transitional Jobs Demonstration
November, 2016This demonstration is testing seven enhanced transitional jobs programs that offer temporary, subsidized jobs and comprehensive support to people recently released from prison and unemployed parents behind in child support payments.
ReportEarly Findings from the TANF/SSI Disability Transition Project
May, 2013Both Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) may serve low-income individuals with disabilities. Yet the two programs’ differences in approach and structure pose challenges to coordinating services. This report describes how TANF agencies interact with local SSA offices and documents the extent to which adult TANF recipients are connected with the SSI system.
ReportTelephone Care Management for Medicaid Recipients with Depression, Thirty-Six Months After Random Assignment
December, 2011A telephonic care management program increased the use of mental health services by Medicaid recipients with depression while the program was running, but it did not help individuals sustain treatment after the intervention ended. The program did not reduce depression on average, nor did it have any effect on employment outcomes.
ReportFinal Evidence from the UK Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) Demonstration
August, 2011The British ERA program’s distinctive combination of post-employment advisory support and financial incentives was designed to help low-income individuals who entered work sustain employment and advance in the labor market. It produced short-term earnings gains for two target groups but sustained increases in employment and earnings and positive benefit-cost results for the third target group, long-term unemployed individuals.
ReportTelephone Care Management for Medicaid Recipients with Depression, Eighteen Months After Random Assignment
November, 2010A telephonic care management program increased the use of mental health services by Medicaid recipients with depression, although that effect faded over time. The program did not reduce depression on average, but it did reduce the number of people who suffered from very severe depression.
Working PaperPreliminary Analysis
March, 2009This report presents a preliminary analysis of the cost of operating Britain’s Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) demonstration, which is being evaluated though a large-scale randomised control trial. This assessment of costs will become an important element of the full cost-benefit analysis to be presented in future ERA reports.
ReportFinal Report on Connecticut’s Welfare Reform Initiative
February, 2002ReportFive-Year Adult and Child Impacts for Eleven Programs
December, 2001How best to help people move from welfare to work — particularly whether an employment-focused approach or an education-focused approach is more effective — has been a subject of long-standing debate. This report summary, which describes the long-term effects of 11 different mandatory welfare-to-work programs for single parents and their children, takes a major step toward resolving this debate.
ReportImplementation, Participation Patterns, Costs, and Three-Year Impacts of the Columbus Welfare-to-Work Program
June, 2001Working PaperSeptember, 1998 -
Other Publications
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Projects
Megan Millenky, Lily Freedman, Caroline Mage, Douglas Phillips, Emily Brennan, Susan Scrivener, Viktoriya Syrov, Johanna Walter, Sally DaiIndividual Placement and Support (IPS) is an evidence-based model for delivering employment services originally developed for people with serious mental illness and implemented in community mental health settings. It has since gained interest as a strategy to promote employment for a variety of populations with mental health and substance use...
Richard Hendra, Stephanie Rubino, Erika Lundquist, Melissa Wavelet, Johanna Walter, Edith Yang, Mark van Dok, Audrey YuTANF Data Innovation (TDI) is a national initiative to support state, local, and tribal agencies that administer Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the federal agencies that oversee this work. This initiative aims to substantially expand the routine use, integration, and...
Megan Millenky, Dan Bloom, Susan Scrivener, Charles Michalopoulos, Dina A. R. Israel, Johanna Walter, Lauren Cates, Sally Dai, Caroline Mage, Emily Marano, Viktoriya Syrov, Douglas Phillips, Kyla Wasserman, Lily Freedman, Osvaldo Avila, Emily Brennan, Jillian Verrillo, Gilda Azurdia, Frieda Molina, Shelley Rappaport, Clinton Key, Nandita Verma, Cynthia Miller, Jared Smith, Shawna Anderson, Kelsey Schaberg, Caitlin Anzelone, James A. Riccio, Keri West, Caroline Schultz, Ethan Feldman
Many Americans struggle in the labor market even when overall economic conditions are good. Unemployment is persistently high for some demographic groups and in certain geographic areas, and a large proportion of...
Many noncustodial parents do not pay their full child support obligations and therefore accumulate child support debt. At the same time, many children receiving child support assistance have little or no savings to help pay for their higher education. In an effort to increase child support payments, lower child support debt, and expand the future economic opportunities...
While welfare agencies and the federal disability system have common goals of supporting people with disabilities and helping them become more independent, the two systems often have diverging interests as well. Differing missions, programmatic and financial challenges, definitions of disability, and rules and incentives related to work make it challenging for the...
Dan Bloom, Lauren Cates, JoAnn Hsueh, Dina A. R. Israel, Charles Michalopoulos, Johanna Walter, Sally Dai, Ximena PortillaFueled by a strong economy and passage of the 1996 federal welfare law, which imposed new work requirements and time limits on cash benefits, welfare caseloads declined precipitously during the 1990s. Between 1993 and 2000, the number of families on welfare dropped 56 percent nationally, with individual states experiencing reductions ranging from 20 percent to more...
Until recently, employment policy in the United Kingdom had been focused principally on helping people who had lost their jobs to find work. Although some government-sponsored measures were available to help those on the margins of employment retain their jobs and improve their earnings, there had been less support for people once they had found jobs. The launch of the...