• Forty percent of participants enrolled in higher education and 20 percent completed higher education degrees ranging from associate to doctorate. Half of all participants who enrolled in college but did not earn degrees are continuing to take credit after credit as time and money permit.

• Community colleges are the prevalent entry path for GED graduates on their way to college diplomas or advanced degrees.

• Ninety-three percent of higher education graduates entered college immediately after completing their ABLE programs and 86 percent of them finished in the normal (two or four year) time frame. Particip ants with learning differences and participants with funding difficulties may take ten years or more years to complete associate or college degrees.

• Conflicting pressures of health, employment, family concerns and financial resources determine if and when participants engage in higher education. Forty-three percent of college graduates had financial assistance in the form of pensions, scholarships or internships; the remaining graduates came from families with two sources of income.

Employment and Welfare

Do participants experience an increase in income and a decrease in welfare dependency?

At ABLE Enrollment:

• Forty-eight percent of the study sample received some form of assistance.

• Fifty-three percent of participants on assistance were single mothers.

• Twenty-two percent of participants on assistance had a past record of drug or alcohol abuse.

• Five of the seven men on assistance had prior physical disabilities.

Current Assistance Status:

• The Impact Survey reveals a 90 percent drop (from 30 percent to three percent) in welfare and food stamp usage after ABLE participation.

• A corresponding employment pattern suggests that working participants left part-time or minimum wage jobs to engage in ABLE programs with a subsequent 20 percent increase in salaried employment after program completion.

• Of 23 participants receiving public assistance prior to ABLE participation, 18 (78 percent) are now self-sufficient. Eighty-one percent of these self-sufficient participants attended college or advanced training courses and four attained degrees.