Jack Hartley Lands 1st Job at Grandpa Joe's via InVEST, Eyes School Return

Q: What is the employee retention rate for programs like InVEST after the first year's 100% wage subsidy expires?

There is no publicly cited retention rate in the provided reporting or supporting material for InVEST workers after the program’s first-year 100% wage subsidy ends. What is documented is that InVEST, run through Pennsylvania’s Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, covers 100% of wages in the first year and provides job coaching and workplace supports intended to help workers transition into lasting competitive employment. The article on Jack Hartley describes those supports and Grandpa Joe’s interest in expanding the program, but it does not report post-subsidy retention data. The closest comparable figure in the supplied material comes from a separate Employment First effort in Kansas, which reported an 82% retention rate for nearly 200 workers with disabilities at an average wage of $13.76 an hour. That suggests supported-employment models can retain workers at relatively high levels, but it is not an InVEST-specific measure and does not answer what happens after Pennsylvania’s subsidy expires. So the accurate answer is that the retention rate after InVEST’s first-year wage reimbursement ends is not available in the materials provided. To verify it, the best sources would be Pennsylvania’s Department of Labor & Industry, the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, or Achieva, which may track whether employers keep participants on payroll once the subsidy period ends.

1 articles · Updated · CBS New York · Jul 18

Two and a half months into his first job, Jack Hartley is assembling shipping boxes at Grandpa Joe's Robinson Township warehouse and says the role has given him confidence and purpose.
Hartley, who has disabilities and has battled mental health problems, entered the workforce through InVEST, a state-funded program run with Achieva that helps people with disabilities secure competitive-wage jobs.
Grandpa Joe's hired Hartley as the first InVEST employee in its program, while Achieva provided a job coach to help with resumes, interviews and settling into the workplace.
About 15 years into partnering with western Pennsylvania businesses, Achieva says the goal is workplace independence, and Hartley's progress has the company hoping to add more workers in more roles.
That boost in confidence is already shaping Hartley's next step: he says he is now considering going back to school.