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Making a Difference

Creating Solutions

Creating Solutions

Jobs-Plus: Increasing Earnings for Public Housing Residents

“The program has made a difference in the way people view themselves, because they see they have potential and opportunity.”
— Lourdes Castro-Ramirez, Los Angeles Housing Department, on MDRC’s Jobs-Plus initiative for public housing families, Los Angeles Times

For many public housing residents, low-wage work simply does not pay because increases in income lead, under traditional public housing rules, to higher rents that can consume a substantial part of what low-wage workers earn.

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Collaborating with Practitioners

COLLABORATING WITH PRACTITIONERS

Partnering with Nonprofits to Transform Evidence Into Action

“As an educator, the most giving thing that someone can do is treat our kids like their kids, and MDRC has done that from day one.”
— Monica Rodriguez, Detroit Promise Path

In this five-minute video, Heather Clawson from Communities In Schools, Monica Rodriguez from Detroit Promise Path, Karen Pennington from Madison Strategies, and MDRC Director of Program Development John Martinez describe how MDRC applies its research knowledge, program experience, and operational expertise when closely collaborating with nonprofit organizations.

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Informing Policy and Practice

Informing Policy and Practice

MDRC’s Evaluation of National Guard Youth ChalleNGe

“At a time when we are looking to save money everywhere in the federal budget, we must fight to protect — even expand — proven programs such as the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program.”
— Former Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA)

Created in the early 1990s, National Guard Youth ChalleNGe is an intensive residential program for high school dropouts. ChalleNGe has served more than 175,000 young people through a program model that includes an unusual and promising mix of features: a five-month residential phase with military-style discipline and a focus on promoting positive youth development and a postresidential phase built around mentoring. ChalleNGe now operates in 41 sites in 32 states and Puerto Rico.

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Informing Policy and Practice

FINDING WHAT WORKS

Career Academies: Increasing Earnings Through Education

“I never go to Capitol Hill to talk about high school reform without taking the MDRC evaluation of high school reform models. MDRC’s objective and thorough analysis is informing much of the legislative policy discussions occurring at this critical time for education.”
— Bob Wise, former governor of West Virginia

First developed more than 35 years ago, Career Academies aim to restructure large high schools into small learning communities around career themes, follow rigorous curricula that include academic and career-oriented courses, and offer opportunities to participate in work-based learning activities — all to create better pathways between high school and further education and the workplace.
 

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