Kansas Chosen For Stay at Work/Return to Work Pilot Project

Employment Services:

Kansas is one of only eight states awarded nearly $1 million from the US Department of Labor to plan for and implement a Stay at Work/Return to Work pilot project. Kansas chose to establish its pilot project in a rural area, partnering with Susan B Allen Memorial Hospital in Butler County.

The Workforce Alliance, as the Local Workforce Development Board, is the partnering WIOA agency.

The first purpose of the grant is to train medical providers to encourage and prepare participants to either stay with their job or return to work as soon as possible after an illness or injury. Research has found if one does not return to work within 12 weeks of suffering a debilitating illness or injury, one is half as likely to ever return to work.

The second purpose of the grant is to develop the relationship between the medical system and the workforce system to support participants and their employers as the return to their current job or seek a new job.

The pilot period is from July 1, 2019 through March 30, 2020. Kansas will compete for one of four implementation grants at the end of the pilot project.