Families Forward

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Families Forward

• Findings after three years

Ellen Shelton, Wilder ResearchGWDC
Welfare-to-Work committeeJune 21, 2005
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The Families Forward initiative

• Purpose
• Help low-income workers
• move into better jobs through
• access to education and training

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Families Forward grantees were asked to

• Focus on low-income workers
• Include employers
• Involve public workforce systems
• Focus on short-term training
• Provide family supports

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GWDC was asked to

• Help sites with implementation
• Connect grantees with each other
• Take challenges and learnings back to a larger
  forum

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Wilder Research was asked to describe

• Participants, programs, and how they fit
• Program adjustments, and why they were made
• Job outcomes for participants

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Clustering of sites for analysis

• Individualized programs
• Sectoral programs
• Higher support
• Lower support
• Employer-based programs

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Participant characteristics

• Employer- Sectoral - Sectoral -
  Individualized
• based lower support higher support
• Most men . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . . . . . . . Most women
• Oldest . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . . . . . . . . . .Youngest
• Most married . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . . . . Fewest married
• Longest time in job . . . . . . . . . .
  .Shortest time in job
• No pattern Education level
• English language proficiency
• Racial / ethnic background

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Types of services provided Assessments

• Help to identify or access appropriate training
• Academic skills or learning ability Career
  aptitude
• Career aptitude
• English language skills
• Specific job skills
• Computer skills
• 79 received at least one
• 39 needed at least one that was not received

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Types of services provided Training

• Job-specific training
• Soft skills (help to learn basic job
  expectations)
• Skills to operate a computer
• English as a second language
• 69 received at least one
• 31 needed at least one that was not received

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Types of services provided Employment support

• Help from a mentor to learn a job
• Help to purchase equipment or supplies for job
  or training
• Help to resolve problems on the job
• Job placement
• 59 received at least one
• 29 needed at least one that was not received

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Types of services provided Financial

• Help with tuition
• Information about sources of financial assistance
• Budgeting / money management
• 20 received at least one
• 45 needed at least one that was not received

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Types of services provided Personal support

• Assessment of support needs
• Case management
• Transportation
• Child care
• Getting / filling out applications
• Counseling / emotional support
• Housing
• 57 received at least one
• 36 needed at least one that was not received

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Factors needed for advancement

• Dreams A realistic vision of new possibilities
• Skills A chance to learn and practice new skills
• Opportunities Employers willing to hire them, to
  invest in their skills, and to provide
  opportunities to move up
• Convergence A way to ensure that all of these
  happen together

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What might we expect for workers without Families
Forward?

• No formal comparison group
• Other studies suggest that low-wage workers in
  general would see
• Very slow to modest growth in wages (0-3 per
  year)
• Steady to falling rates of health benefits

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Job outcomes for Families Forward after nine
months

• For all participants employed at intake
• 88 still employed
• 20 in higher positions
• 49 with higher hourly wages

Source Wilder 9-month survey, N364
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9-month job outcomes (cont.)

• For just those employed at both times
• 30 working more hours (vs. 16 fewer hours)
• More receiving health care benefits (up from
  58 to 70)

Source Wilder 9-month survey, N322
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9-month job outcomes (cont.)

• For just those employed at both times
• 5.3 average gain in wages
• 1.5 average gain in hours per week
• 6.8 average gain in monthly earnings

Source Wage Detail 4-quarter FUP, N382
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9-month job outcomes (cont.)

• Of those not employed at intake
• Nearly two-thirds were working at 9 months
• More than half attributed finding work to
  Families Forward
• Averaged 25 hours of work per week
• Average hourly wage of 11.31

Sources Wilder 9-mo survey (N217), Wage Detail
4-quarter FUP (N131)
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Indication of longer-term results two-year
follow-up

• For small sample currently available
• Of 53 participants employed at intake
• 77 employed two years later
• 32 in higher positions
• 55 earning higher hourly wages

Source Wilder 24-month survey, N94
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Percent with better jobs
Source Wilder surveysPercents are of people
employed at both intake and two years
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Indication of longer-term results two-year
follow-up

• For small sample currently available
• For participants employed at both times
• 14.4 average gain in wages
• 6.5 average gain in hours
• 21.8 average gain in monthly
  earnings

Source Wage Detail 8-quarter FUP, N135
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Average change in pay
Source Wage Detail records
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Other indications of longer-term results

• A lasting effect on dreams
• Two years after starting, 9 in 10 report the
  program encouraged them to get motivated and
  think they could do something new

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What contributed to outcomes?

• Few results were significantly linked to levels
  of need
• Programs may be making the most difference for
  those with the most needs

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What contributed to outcomes?

• Individualized cluster
• Highest reports of getting a better job

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What contributed to outcomes?

• Sectoral clusters
• Highest reports of getting better wages
• More credited program with better job and better
  wages
• Most gains in benefits
• Higher support Most consistent improvement
  overall

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What contributed to outcomes?

• Employer-based cluster
• Best jobs, least improvement (wages, hours,
  position)
• Erosion in most benefits
• Most likely to still be employed

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What contributed to outcomes?

• A lot of good relationships with
• Participants
• Employers
• Partner organizations

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Conclusions

• Its working
• Participants are advancing
• Employers are gaining more skilled workers
• Providers are learning
• Some policy makers are beginning to pay attention

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Conclusions

• The different models fill different niches
• Programs are meeting different mixes of
  participant and employer needs
• Range of models helps people stuck at different
  points

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Conclusions

• Few purely incumbent worker programs
• Trade-off between intensity and earnings
• Support services help, but are hard to fund
• Some success through attention to location and
  schedule

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Conclusions

• Soft skills problems are not always clear-cut
• Participants say they know them
• Providers say they need more help
• Term is vague
• Tend to be judged subjectively

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Conclusions

• The intermediary role is important
• Help workers and employers at the same time
• Bi-cultural translators
• Know, leverage, and combine variety of funding
  streams

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Recommendations

• 1. Recognize and promote the role of
  intermediary organizations
• Meet needs of workers and employers
• Agility in environment of change
• Promote alignment of other partners
• Know and combine variety of funding sources
• Help public workforce institutions and businesses
  better understand and use their services

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Recommendations

• 2. Create incentives to employers to provide
  assessment and skills training for their own
  workers
• Develop local or regional consortia
• Promote regional economic development
• Avoid disincentives that apply to individual firms

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Recommendations

• 3. Align resources to develop better partnership
  between policy-makers and service providers
• Build on connections GWDC has developed between
  local and state levels
• Strengthen local practices and state planning and
  responsiveness
• Balance clear state-level vision and policy with
  latitude for flexibility in local implementation

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Recommendations

• 4. Rework current public policies to better
  address needs of incumbent workers for skill
  development
• Recognize shortcomings of current policy and
  funding
• Increase share of workforce funding for skill
  development
• Recognize needs for support services

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Recommendations

• Recognize the length of time needed for real
  change
• Participants
• Employers
• Local service providers
• Regional and state organizations
• Keep expectations realistic and stay the course

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Summary and full report on web

• Summary and full report on Web
• www.McKnight.org
• www.wilderresearch.org
• More on effective services
• www.gwdc.org/families-forward.htm