Put Illinois To Work (PITW) is a part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) Emergency Contingency Fund program. PITW is a public-private collaboration between the Illinois Department of Human Services and Heartland Human Care Services. It is a subsidized employment program that supports disadvantaged workers and struggling businesses through the recovery. PITW provides unemployed and underemployed workers with paid work experience and connections to jobs. All trainee-workers are low-income parents or young adults. As an incentive for businesses to hire new workers, PITW subsidizes 100% of the workers wages for a limited period of time, thereby reducing the cost of hiring.

PITW was implemented in the second quarter of 2010 when there were 764,825 unemployed workers in the state, and an unemployment rate of 11.5%. Federal funding ended on September 30, 2010 but the State of Illinois extended the funding until November 30, 2010.

The program’s goal is to support disadvantaged workers and struggling businesses through the economic recovery process.

The Social IMPACT Research Center has conducted an initial evaluation of the program. Their early findings suggest that as of September 11, 2010 over 27,000 low-income, unemployed and underemployed Illinois residents were granted job placement with 4,280 employers. Each worker was employed for 11.5 weeks.

Fifty-two percent of employers reported that they would permanently hire half to all of the trainees if it was financially feasible, but due to financial restraints, only 13% said they would be able to do so. Fifty-two percent of employers reported that they are now more willing to hire low parents or young adults, and 39% said they are as likely as before participating in PITW. Ninety-two percent of trainee-workers and 88% of employers reported they would participate in PITW or a similar program again if given the opportunity.