The demonstration examined both the program’s implementation and its effects on young mothers and their families. The analysis of its effects included more than 2,000 women in the target population. Each one was randomly assigned to one of two groups: the New Chance group, whose members were eligible for the program’s services, or the control group, whose members could not join New Chance but could receive other services in the community. Because mothers were assigned to one or the other group at random, the two groups did not differ at the outset of the study. Therefore, any differences between them that emerged during the follow-up period can be attributed to the program.

New Chance was operated in 16 sites in 10 states:
 

• Allentown, Pennsylvania
• Bronx, New York
• Chicago Heights, Illinois
• Chula Vista, California
• Denver, Colorado
• Detroit, Michigan
• Harlem, New York
• Inglewood, California
• Jacksonville, Florida
• Lexington, Kentucky
• Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Portland, Oregon
• Salem, Oregon
• San Jose, California

The analysis of New Chance’s effects on families are based on in-person interviews with the mothers 18 months and 42 months after random assignment. The survey asked about outcomes such as GED attainment, employment status, earnings, childrearing, and use of contraception.

Conducted in collaboration with researchers outside MDRC, the New Chance Observational Study closely examined the parental behavior of 290 mothers in the evaluation by directly observing their interactions with their children. This part of the study aimed to describe parenting in both research groups, to assess New Chance’s effects on parenting by comparing observations of the two groups, to explore the role of parenting in shaping children’s outcomes, and to assess the added research benefits of measuring parenting using direct observations in addition to survey interviews.