|
Policy Framework
In the past three decades, broad economic shifts have sharply decreased the availability of good jobs for workers without postsecondary education. Disadvantaged men have been particularly hard hit by these trends. Many of these men become enmeshed in the criminal justice and child support enforcement systems, which are increasingly focusing on how to help their “clients” find and hold jobs.
The Enhanced Transitional Jobs Demonstration (ETJD), sponsored by the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) in the U.S. Department of Labor, is designed to fund and rigorously test employment programs targeting noncustodial parents and individuals recently released from prison. MDRC is leading the evaluation, along with its partners, Abt Associates and MEF Associates. The project will build on recent studies of transitional jobs programs, which have shown mixed results. Thus, programs funded in the ETJD project will include specific enhancements designed to yield stronger results. MDRC is also conducting the Subsidized and Transitional Job Demonstration, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which focuses on programs serving parents who are directly or indirectly connected to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
Agenda, Scope, and Goals
The ETJD project will fund and evaluate enhanced transitional jobs programs targeting either noncustodial parents or former prisoners. The evaluation will use a random assignment design to assess whether the programs increase participants’ earnings and employment in both the short and long run. It will also examine whether the programs decrease recidivism, increase child support payments, or achieve other important outcomes.
Design, Sites, and Data Sources
Seven grantees are participating in the demonstration:
- Center for Community Alternatives, Syracuse, NY
- Goodwill of North Georgia, Atlanta
- City and County of San Francisco
- Tarrant County Workforce Development Board, Fort Worth, TX
- The Doe Fund Inc., New York City
- Workforce Inc., Indianapolis, IN
- Young Women's Christian Association of Greater Milwaukee
Individuals who are eligible for the ETJD programs will be assigned, at random, to a program group that is offered services from the transitional jobs program or to a control group that is not served in the program but may seek out other services in the community.
The evaluation will use a combination of surveys and administrative records to track the study groups for several years. It will also study the operation of the programs and assess their costs.
What's Next
The Employment and Training Administration selected the ETJD sites in June 2011. The MDRC team is working with each of the grantees to develop and implement a random assignment evaluation design.
|
|
