WtW participants engaged in job readiness or employment activities are allowed to receive appropriate job retention supportive services, if such services are not otherwise available. Grantees are clearly attentive to the need for supportive services. Grantees recognize transportation difficulties as a common barrier to employment success for the WtW population. More than 80 percent of respondents indicated that they will provide direct transportation assistance to WtW participants, contract for transportation services, or provide subsidies to transportation providers. The survey respondents will devote an estimated seven percent of their overall WtW funds to providing transportation assistance for WtW participants.
Grantees are likely to spend even more WtW funds on child care services.
Almost 63 percent of survey respondents indicated that they will provide direct child care assistance to WtW participants, contract for child care services, or provide subsidies directly to providers. WtW regulations direct operating entities to ensure that grant funds do not substitute for child care services available through the Child Care Development Fund, TANF funds, or other state or local sources. Respondents' relatively strong emphasis on child care suggests that the child care needs of the WtW target population are perceived as extending beyond the resources generally available at the local level. A small proportion of overall WtW funds is devoted to these services, however, possibly because WtW funds cannot be used for medical services. Beside education and training services, the only example the WtW legislation provides of allowable postemployment supportive services is mentoring.