7.2.4.5 Case Management Services in CMJ

The W-2 agency shares an equal responsibility with the participant for finding employment. FEPs must schedule weekly contact with CMJ participants and provide an array of structured employment services and individualized case management, including:

Providing participants with information about specific job openings in the local labor market that match the individual’s skills and career assessment results;

Creating and updating the participant's Employability Plan (EP) with appropriate activities based on feedback obtained from the participant and from employers who did not offer the participant an interview or a job;

Offering career assessment services, providing guidance in career decision making, and identifying jobs that match the participant’s skills, interests, and abilities;

Monitoring a participant’s job search efforts to review specific jobs the participant has applied for and interviews outcomes to discuss with the participant why they did not receive an offer and help them adjust accordingly;

Discussing any nonparticipation with the participant and the reasons for the nonparticipation. FEPs must exercise due diligence in determining whether previously identified or unidentified barriers (such as personal and family challenges) are the underlying cause of the nonparticipation. The FEP must quickly re-engage CMJ participants in job search activities and place in a paid position CMJ participants who are found to have more severe barriers;

Connecting the CMJ participant with W-2 agency staff and community partners who assist in developing job leads and employer contacts; and

Discussing with the participant any barriers that may be preventing the participant from obtaining employment, including necessary supports, such as housing, transportation, and child care.

Participants with barriers that cannot be addressed with W-2 services within a 30-day timeframe must be placed in a paid W-2 employment position while these barriers are addressed. If barriers are discovered after the FEP has placed the participant in a CMJ, the FEP must not wait for the 30-day review period to move a CMJ participant to a paid W-2 employment position. (See 7.2.4.2 )