Seeking A Sustainable Journey to Work: Findings from the National Bridges to Work Demonstration

The Bridges to Work demonstration was designed to test whether efforts to help inner-city job seekers overcome barriers to accessing suburban jobs would result in better employment opportunities and earnings for these workers. This report examines outcomes for more than 1,800 applicants to Bridges to Work, half of whom were randomly selected to receive the programs transportation, job placement and supportive services for up to 18 months and half who were not offered these services. The researchers found that Bridges to Work did not positively impact participants employment and earnings, results that were consistent across cities and across various strategies for providing transportation services. Given the programs implementation challenges, costs and lack of results, the report concludes that the Bridges model is not a viable policy response to the mismatch between the location of jobs and the location of unemployed workers. However, the models lack of success does not diminish the importance of improving transportation options to increase workers access to employment, and the authors derive a number of important lessons from the demonstrations experience to inform future mobility efforts

A Promising Start: Year Up's Initial Impacts on Low-Income Young Adults' Careers

Year Up, a non-profit organization headquartered in Boston, was founded by a former software entrepreneur in 2000 to provide a year of training and work experience to urban young adults ages 18 to 24. It has been able to develop a network of program sites across the country without the constraints imposed by public funding. Initial results from a small-scale impact study conducted by Mobility demonstrate that Year Up students experience remarkable earnings gains after a year in the labor market, compared to a control group. These gains were achieved during one of the worst economic recessions in recent memory, a recession that hit young people particularly April 2011 A Promising Start Year Up's Initial Impacts on Low-Income Young Adults' Careers Anne Roder Mark Elliott economic mobility corporation 1 A Promising Start Year Up's Initial Impacts on Low-Income Young Adults' Careers hard. Also, the Year Up experience does not deter young people from pursuing further education—program participants are just as likely to enroll in postsecondary education as control group members

Mentoring School-Age Children: A Classification of Programs

The number of mentoring programs providing adult support to youth has increased dramatically in recent years. This report presents information on the characteristics of programs serving school-aged youth (K-12). We found that rather than simply replicating the traditional Big Brothers Big Sisters model, newer programs are emphasizing somewhat more instrumental goals and activities, as well as experimenting with different types of relationships (group, school-based, etc.). Most programs seem to have sufficient infrastructure to screen, train, and supervise their mentors adequately, but many de-emphasize the importance of developing long-term relationships

Targeting Industries, Training Workers and Improving Opportunities: The Final Report from the Sectoral Employment Initiative

Over the past 30 years, American workers have faced daunting challenges, including declines in real wages and dwindling upward mobility. Paths to advance within companies have deteriorated, leaving many low-skilled workers "stuck" indefinitely in low-wage jobs -- and swelling the ranks of the working poor. As opportunities for less-educated workers to access well-paying jobs grow scarce, it is clear that our nation requires new approaches to workforce development.In a departure from traditional strategies, some workforce organizations have begun to implement services and activities that focus on the needs of specific industry sectors. By identifying local sectors that lack workers -- which might range from health care to manufacturing to construction -- these organizations can help low-income workers acquire the specific skills they need to fill available positions. To explore the potential of this approach, P/PV launched the Sectoral Employment Initiative (SEI) in 1998, with support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. This final report relies on data gathered during interviews with staff members at the SEI organizations and other key players in the targeted sectors, site visits, reviews of program documentation, and baseline and follow-up interviews with program participants focusing on a range of outcomes, including employment, earnings, education, housing and household income. The report presents key findings and explores some of the challenges sectoral programs encountered

Targeting Industries, Training Workers and Improving Opportunities: The Final Report from the Sectoral Employment Initiative Executive Summary

This executive summary provides a brief look at the key findings and challenges sectoral programs encountered while participating in the Sectoral Employment Initiative (SEI). By identifying local sectors that lack workers -- which might range from health care to manufacturing to construction -- these organizations were shown, in many cases, to help low-income workers acquire the specific skills they need to fill available positions

Gearing Up: An Interim Report on the Sectoral Employment Initiative

Gearing Up is the first P/PV report on the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation's Sectoral Employment Initiative. It provides information about the various strategies being pursued, who is participating, and the sites' successes and struggles through the initiative's first two years. The report concludes with observations on those factors that appear critical to participating organizations' attaining their goals

Investing in Low-Wage Workers: Lessons from Family Child Care in Rhode Island

While child care is one of the fastest growing occupations in the country, most employment in this field is precarious and low-wage. Investing in Low-Wage Workers profiles the Day Care Justice Co-op, a group of largely Latina and African American women living and working in some of Rhode Island's poorest communities. Determined to improve family child care, the group sought better wages and benefits for family child care workers across the state and developed important resources for its members. During the study period, P/PV found a dramatic reduction in poverty among Co-op members -- from 44 to 15 percent. The Co-op was supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation's Sectoral Employment Initiative. Launched in 1998, the Initiative attempted to improve opportunities in selected workplace sectors for low-wage workers to achieve financial security

Partnerships for Skills Gains: Investing in Frontline Workers

The Kellogg Foundation asked Mobility to undertake Partnerships for Skills Gains because it wanted to understand how employers partner with other organizations to invest in their workers. The foundation specified that the employer training partnerships should focus on upgrading the skills of low-income workers, result in higher wages for trained employees, and require employers to contribute financially to the training.This report is the result of an extensive literature review, interviews with dozens of experts, and conversations with more than 160 employers, workforce board staff, and training providers.

Promoting Opportunity: Findings from the State Workforce Policy Initiative on Employment Retention and Advancement

Promoting Opportunity is the final report on the State Workforce Policy Initiative, which was based on the premise that low-income individuals with limited work experience and skills may be able to obtain jobs, but they also need support to minimize barriers to steady employment and to advance to better positions in order to achieve long-term economic stability. During the four-year initiative, P/PV documented the efforts of five states to incorporate retention and advancement strategies into local workforce development programs and to strengthen state workforce policies to support these strategies. This report describes the results of their efforts, including an analysis of the outcomes of 477 individuals who participated in the local programs. The evidence suggests that retention and advancement strategies have the potential to benefit low-income workers, and the authors highlight promising program practices and implications for state policy

Alphabetisierung von erwachsenen Einwanderern: methodisches Vorgehen bei der Evaluation von Lehrmethoden

In diesem Artikel geht es um die Beschreibung eines Versuchs, der dazu dienen soll, herauszufinden, welche Lehrmethoden in so genannten "Alphabetisierungs-DaZ-Kursen" für Deutschlerner/innen, die keine Kenntnis des lateinischen Alphabets haben, besonders geeignet sind. Sieben verschiedene Lehrmethoden werden in vier verschiedenen Kursen so verglichen, dass jeweils ein Lehrstoff in einem Kurs mit der einen und im Parallelkurs mit der anderen Methode vermittelt wird, für den jeweils nächsten Lehrstoff werden die Methoden ausgetauscht. Der Schwerpunkt des Artikels liegt auf einer kritischen Beschreibung der Methodik der Untersuchung