The labor market integration of immigrants is a top political priority throughout the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Social and fiscal gains, as well as sustained future labor supply make governments search for effective policies to increase employment among the mostly disadvantaged. The author studies SIN,…

The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of a pilot study that promoted productive and capacity-building activities among deprived rural women of Mexico. The evaluation design is observational; 1,278 women are interviewed, and the comparison group is estimated by propensity score matching. The results show a positive impact on the…

Programs using means tests to identify low-income households face a trade-off between promoting access and ensuring program integrity. The authors use a comparison-district design to estimate the effects of a pilot program to improve the accuracy of the process of certifying students for free or reduced-price meals in the National School Lunch…

In 2003, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) provided Florida's Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) with a $3.5 million grant to design and implement a faith- and community-based program for incarcerated juveniles. Florida's experience developing a completely new program has provided valuable lessons regarding…

This article describes how microsimulation analysis was used to help design a social experiment in two Canadian provinces. The microsimulation was used to choose among alternative program models, to refine the selected model, and to project costs for the Canadian government's program of financial incentives for leaving welfare. (SLD)

This paper describes a six-month service-coordination pilot project (SCPP) designed to improve coordination activities among mental health service providers in a Canadian city. The aim of the project was to improve information sharing and joint treatment planning. Data show no effect of the SCPP, but service providers perceived improvements. (TJH)

The lack of support for mental health-related projects by private philanthropy, even among those that express an interest in mental health, is due in large part to the subjectivity of the grant review process. To address this problem, Whaley, Rodriguez, and Alexander developed the Grant Proposal Rating Form (GPRF) to make the grant review process…

A pilot study involving 90 percent of the parents of 200 seventh graders attending two junior high schools evaluated the effectiveness of active versus passive methods of obtaining parental consent. Passive consent can provide a viable alternative to active consent when supplemented by appropriate backup and privacy safeguards. (TJH)

This pilot study provides information on the effort required to conduct a telephone survey on access to care of persons with angina. Allowing for noncontact calls, refusal to participate, and ineligibility, the response rate for whites was 23.4% (2,724 of 11,559), and that of African Americans was 24.3% (2,003 of 8,242). (SLD)

The overall aim of the two school-based pilot studies was to evaluate whether an approach to prevention that focused on changing child impulse control, decision making, and social competence can be effective in changing attitudes toward food intake and physical activity as risk factors for obesity. The strategy used was to translate specific…