About MDRC
Since joining MDRC in December 2010, Olejniczak has assisted with study design, worked closely with program staff members to provide program and evaluation support, created tools for monitoring program and study implementation, and led and conducted field research. Currently, he is the operations and the implementation lead for the Cascades Job Corps College and Career Academy Pilot Evaluation, which seeks to improve outcomes for students in Job Corps, a long-standing program for disadvantaged young people. He is also providing training and program support as an operations and technical assistance site liaison for the MyGoals for Employment Success project, a new program using an innovative coaching model to help recipients of federal housing subsidies find work, build careers, and advance toward greater self-sufficiency. In addition, he recently served as the operations lead and conducted implementation field research and analysis for the Rent Reform Demonstration (for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Employment and Training Evaluation. The Rent Reform Demonstration alters the rent rules in the Housing Choice Voucher Program to allow families to keep more of their earnings; the SNAP Employment and Training Evaluation assesses the extent to which various types of services help food stamp recipients improve their economic outcomes. Previously, Olejniczak has made significant contributions to the WorkAdvance program evaluation, the Workforce Investment Act Adult and Dislocated Worker Programs Gold Standard evaluation, and the SaveUSA evaluation. Olejniczak holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Montana.
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MDRC Publications
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Other Publications
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Projects
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Job Corps program provides education and training to disadvantaged young people. It offers high school education services combined with career and technical training in a residential setting. The Cascades College and Career Academy ( CCCA ) pilot is an ambitious and evidence-based attempt to improve upon the Job Corps model for its...
James A. Riccio, Donna Wharton-Fields, Nina Castells, Stephanie Rubino, Keith Olejniczak, Joshua Vermette, Hannah Dalporto, Simran VaziraniMyGoals for Employment Success is a new workforce program intended to help recipients of federal housing subsidies who are not employed find work, build careers, and advance toward greater self-sufficiency. The program incorporates an innovative employment coaching model that is informed by current literature in behavioral psychology on executive functioning skills and...
Barbara S. Goldman, Frieda Molina, Donna Wharton-Fields, Stephen Freedman, Richard Hendra, David Navarro, Alexandra Pennington, Susan Scrivener, Betsy L. Tessler, Jonathan Bigelow, Keith Olejniczak, Kelsey SchabergThe Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ( SNAP ) — formerly the food stamp program —is a critical work support for low-income people and families. Although SNAP has included various employment and training requirements for adult recipients to maintain their eligibility since the 1970s, the SNAP Employment and Training ( SNAP E&T ) program was established as...
Many U.S. households do not have enough savings to help manage temporary losses of income or increased expenditures from unexpected events. Increased savings might particularly help low- and moderate-income families avoid resorting to high-cost (sometimes “payday”) loans or failing to meet monthly rent bills and minimum credit card payments. To support the buildup of...
James A. Riccio, Nandita Verma, Gilda Azurdia, Edith Yang, Jonathan Bigelow, Keith Olejniczak, Joshua VermetteThe Housing Choice Voucher Program is one of the federal government’s major programs for helping very low-income families with children, elderly people, and disabled people afford decent and safe housing in the private rental market. Housing vouchers are administered locally by public housing agencies with funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban...
Frieda Molina, Barbara S. Goldman, Richard Hendra, Betsy L. Tessler, Alexandra Pennington, Keith Olejniczak, Kelsey Schaberg, Hannah DalportoPast evaluations have provided solid evidence regarding what works to help low-income individuals become employed. However, these studies have also found that many people who found jobs were not better off financially, in part because these jobs were unstable, low paying, and provided few advancement opportunities. More recent randomized controlled evaluations of both...
The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 ( WIA ) is the federal government’s largest source of federally funded employment services and training. WIA is the latest in a series of federal employment and training programs, the first having arisen in response to the Great Depression. WIA aims to bring together formerly fragmented public and private reemployment services, make...