Welcome Letter (Attachment I)

A ttachment I - BEES Welcome Letter

OMB Control No: ____-____

Expiration Date: __/__/____

Welcome to the Building Evidence on Employment Strategies for Low-Income Families (BEES) Study!

Last month, you applied to receive services through [BEES program]. You also agreed to participate in the BEES study. Thank you for agreeing to be part of this important study! This packet tells you a little more about the study’s interviews.

Overview of the BEES Interviews

The BEES interviews will help researchers, policymakers, and practitioners learn more about the type of services that help you and other people like you find and keep jobs.

• Your participation is voluntary. Any information you give us will be kept private.

• Even if you were not one of the individuals selected to participate in [BEES program], we want to hear about your experiences.

Researchers at MDRC are conducting the study with help from Abt Associates and MEF Associates for the Administration for Children and Families (ACF).

• MDRC is a non-profit research company.

• ACF is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

What does it mean to help with the BEES interviews?

We may ask you to participate in two research activities:

1. Update your contact information, and

2. Complete follow-up interviews about your experiences since you applied for [BEES program].

Contact Update Requests

When you agreed to be in this study, you also agreed to let us contact you every few months.

We want to make sure we have your correct phone number, email, and street address in our records so we can contact you about the follow-up interviews.

You will receive a letter explaining how to update your contact information if it has changed.

• You can update your information by mail, online, or by phone; whichever is easiest for you.

• You can choose whether or not to respond to these requests.

• The researchers will protect your personal information.

We understand your time is valuable.

• It will take about 5 minutes to update or confirm your information.

• We will send you $5 for each contact update response we get from you.

BEES Follow-Up Interviews

Over the next few years, researchers from the BEES study team may invite you to take interviews for the study.

• The interviews will help us learn more about your experiences since you applied to [BEES program].

• The interviews will ask about the services you received, the jobs you have had, and how things are going for you.

We are interested in the experiences of everyone who applied to [BEES program], even if you were not selected to participate in the program.

• You can choose whether or not to participate in the interviews. Your experiences are unique and your participation is important.

• You can help us understand how different types of services can help people learn skills to get jobs.

• The researchers will protect your personal information. Your name will not be used in any reports.

• You will receive a gift card for [$15/$25] as a thank you for completing the [6-month/12-month] follow-up interview.

For more information on the BEES Study, you may contact: Dan Bloom (dan.bloom@mdrc.org) or Karin Martinson (Karin_Martinson@abtassoc.com).

The Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This collection of information is voluntary and will be used to understand programs that aim to improve employment outcomes for low-income adults. We expect the [6/12]-month interview to take about [15/30] to complete and contact update requests to take about 5 minutes. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB number and expiration date for this collection are OMB #: XXXX-XXXX, Exp: XX/XX/XXXX.