At this moment, the role of community-based organizations (CBOs) has never been more important. The country is facing a dual crisis in youth unemployment and low postsecondary completion rates. Both are especially prevalent among low-income and minority young people. Across the nation, nearly 7 million young people are neither in school nor part…

Few Americans know the importance of community-based organizations, or CBOs, in helping tens of thousands of undereducated, underemployed young people find a job or go back to school. But the role of CBOs is growing more critical as the business, education, and philanthropic sectors increasingly recognize the need to enable the nation's millions…

Grounded in person-environment fit theory, this study examined whether low-income mothers' preferences for education moderated the effects of employment- and education-focused welfare programs on children's positive and problem behaviors. The sample included 1,365 families with children between ages 3 and 5 years at study entry. Results 5 years…

This report focuses on the seven original Youth Transition Demonstration (YTD) projects selected for funding in 2003. Three of the original seven projects were selected for a national random assignment evaluation in 2005; however, this report only focuses on program operations prior to joining the random assignment evaluation for the three…

New York's workforce system is a complicated entity that engages nearly a dozen state agencies and myriad funding streams originating at the federal and state levels, and operates on the ground in ten economic development regions, 33 designated workforce investment areas, community-based organizations, labor unions and 62 counties. This report…

The Jobs-Plus Community Revitalization Initiative for Public Housing Families was developed in the late 1990s in response to the growing concentration of joblessness, underemployment, welfare receipt, and poverty in some of the nation's most economically deprived communities: public housing developments and their surrounding neighborhoods. In many…

This report summarizes the final impact results for the national Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) project. This project tested, using a random assignment design, the effectiveness of numerous programs intended to promote steady work and career advancement. All the programs targeted current and former welfare recipients and other low-wage…

Research completed since the 1980s has yielded substantial knowledge about how to help welfare recipients and other low-income individuals prepare for and find jobs. Many participants in these successful job preparation and placement programs, however, ended up in unstable, low-paying jobs, and little was known about how to effectively help them…

This article features the Higher Education Recruitment Consortium, or HERC, website, which lists all positions such as custodians, administrators, and other faculty positions at colleges, universities, and research institutions throughout the country. HERC, based in Ben Lomond, California, uses its "dual career" hiring services to help…

The Western Job Training Partnership Association (WJTPA) supports the periodic evaluation of the scope and effectiveness of national, state, and local work force preparation and work force education programs. The WJTPA believes that future programs must correct the problems inherited from earlier work force preparation programs, such as the…

This paper is one in a series of research papers related to the state role in youth employment and training. It describes seven state-sponsored youth employment and training programs, representing a varied range of approaches that states have undertaken to address their youth employment problems. The first section of this paper provides capsule…

Describes activities in the development of the project, Home-based Employment to Accomplish Rehabilitation (HEAR). This description is intended to serve as a guideline for replicating similar programs with any group of homebound individuals. Project objectives, effect of home-based employment, guidelines, and enhancing professionalism are topics…

This technical report details the employment problems of inner-city youth and describes some programs that have successfully met these problems. The first of its three parts describes inner-city youth and enumerates the major employment barriers facing them. (It was found that while inner-city youth tend to be disadvantaged, a subgroup of them…

From July 1985 through September 1987, the County of San Diego, California, operated the Saturation Work Initiative Model (SWIM) as a demonstration project. The demonstration tested the feasibility and effectiveness of requiring ongoing participation in employment-related activities by a high proportion of persons on welfare. SWIM provided job…

California's Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN) program requires that large numbers of welfare recipients receive job training and preparation for employment. A survey of the program analyzed early operations in 8 of the first 10 counties to implement it; data were gathered from program staff, case records, and field research of the first…