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EDUCATIONAL COMPONENT: WORK READINESS TRAINING Description of the component. Provide a summary of the activities and services. Work readiness training activities are designed to improve basic skills and the employability of SNAP participants through general skills building, the development of good work habits, and building a work history. Work readiness programs may also offer SNAP participants an opportunity to earn credentials valued by employers and industry, including certificates, industry-recognized credentials, and licensures. Examples: YMCA’s Career Advancement program is a 32-week program for underemployed or unemployed immigrant adults interested in improving their employment potential and English fluency. The program consists of career focused ESOL, MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook), Google Suite, American workplace culture and office skills, career exploration and job search skills, and on-going job search support leading to new employment. The curriculum includes review of core competencies related to speaking, listening, reading, writing, and pronunciation and introduces notetaking based on discussion, critical thinking, working with academic and professional vocabulary embedded in readings, and developing the ability to incorporate new vocabulary into writing assignments. Other activities include informational interviews, mock interviews, field trips, and presentations. More Than Words (MTW) is a nonprofit social enterprise that empowers youth ages 16-24 who are court-involved, in the foster care system, out-of-school, or experiencing homelessness to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business. In their Core Social Enterprise program, youth work on consistent shifts with peers and full-time adult staff Business Training Managers to run multiple business lines that generate more than $3.5M in gross annual sales, including online and retail sales of used books, clothing, and accessories and event rentals; they work approximately 20 hours per week and manage direct interaction with customers in MTW’s storefronts, including sourcing and warehousing for 4 million books per year and managing an inventory of 170,000 books listed online. They place items in inventory, ship ordered items, guide tours, plan and host community events, make daily pickups at donation bins, use business software to track donations, and learn to cultivate partnerships through marketing, outreach, and virtual presentations. Through their jobs, youth develop marketable and transferable job skills for retail, manufacturing, and warehousing industries, as well as critical professional skills such as showing up on time and working as a team. This work experience is accompanied by life and workforce skills curriculum sessions reinforcing what participants are learning on the job, such as the competencies of dependability/safety/respect, workplace rights, or keeping a job. Many MTW participants have a history of, or are actively dealing with, poverty, trauma, homelessness, violence, incarceration and/or disconnection from employment, school and supports. While some participants will complete the program in 6 months, others will need more time and many do not complete the program on their first try. While reengagement is common and built into MTW’s trauma-informed model, each participant only completes the program once. Roca's Basic Transitional Employment Program (BTEP) TEP uses real work to teach young people how to show up, follow instruction, and learn skills critical to succeed in the open labor market. Roca operates supervised work crews - contracted through local governments, housing authorities and private companies - in custodial work, property maintenance, painting, and landscaping. Participants holding basic assignment work slots are paid for four workdays per week and engage in a “development day” once a week, focusing on hard and soft skill development. They are paid the minimum hourly wage (MA - $15.00/hour). Participation duration varies. BTEP encourages young people to show up daily and offers them the freedom to learn and grow through their mistakes. Only once a young person has achieved 60 consecutive days of basic transitional employment are they eligible to move to Advanced Transitional Employment placements (ATEP). This typically takes 2-18 months, with the average participant achieving this goal in 15 months. ATE placements (not currently offered under SNAP Path to Work) are in businesses and other organizations where the work content the crews perform provides them the opportunity to gain higher level work skills through more advanced projects including construction, landscape installation, and apartment turnovers. Young people work directly under employer partner supervision with Roca available for support. The goal is for the employer partner to hire the young person at the end of the assignment. See more about the Roca participant’s journey here: https://rocainc.org/how-we-do-it/participants-journey-in-the-intervention-model/ 1/29/26, 8:19 AM State Plan MA FY26 - Original Submission https://dam-fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/microsite/snapet-mafy26stateplan//index.html 70/167