May 01, 2009

Public/Private Ventures;

Public funding for employment and training has dwindled over the past several decades. Yet in communities all over the United States, there has been considerable development of alternative approaches to help low-income people gain skills for particular industry sectors. In 2003, with support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, P/PV launched the Sectoral Employment Impact Study to test the efficacy of one such approach. Using a random-assignment design, P/PV researchers set out to answer the question: Can well-implemented, sector-focused training programs make a difference to the earnings of low-income disadvantaged workers and job seekers? Three organizations were selected to participate in the study: Jewish Vocational Service in Boston, Per Scholas in the Bronx and the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership in Milwaukee. This issue of P/PV In Brief summarizes impacts found for participants across the three sites, including increases in earnings and employment; a more detailed report on the study will be released in late 2009.

Oct 30, 2001

Public/Private Ventures;

Since 1996, private and public funders in San Francisco have supported a city-wide Beacons Initiative. Eight Beacon Centers, located in public schools, serve 7500 youth and adults each year, providing a rich array of developmental activities in the non-school hours. This report looks at how the centers were created; it describes the centers' operation; and investigates the role of the initiative's "theory of change" in organizing and guiding the effort.

Mar 01, 1998

Public/Private Ventures;

Moving people into the workforce quickly may be the best first step to moving them out of poverty; but, by itself, rapid attachment is not likely to achieve the more important workforce development goals of enabling people to keep their jobs and leave poverty behind. This report explores the new challenges to building self-sufficiency brought about by the work first orientation of welfare reform, and the steps that practitioners, policymakers, and researchers may need to consider to keep their poverty alleviation strategies on track. The report includes descriptions of innovations in three key areas -- employer involvement, working with work first, and postemployment services -- which P/PV believes to be necessary to advance workforce development in the uncertain climate of welfare and education and training reform.