Sponsoring Agency: U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration
Project Officer: Savi Swick
Performance Period: June 2010 – June 2012
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Project Summary: The Young Parents Demonstration (YPD) Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (DOL/ETA) to test innovative strategies that can improve the skills and education of young parents and, ultimately their employment and earnings. The YPD initiative is designed to provide educational and occupational skills training that fosters family economic self-sufficiency to young parents (both mothers and fathers) and expectant parents 16 to 24 years of age. The YPD projects serve young parents including, as applicable, those in high-risk categories such as victims of child abuse, children of incarcerated parents, court-involved youth, youth at risk of court involvement, homeless and runaway youth, Native American youth, migrant youth, youth in or aging out of foster care, and youth with disabilities. The YPD program grantees are required to develop a “bump-up” intervention that provides an additional level above and beyond the existing level of services specifically intended to increase an individual’s education, job training and employment. With a 50/50 chance of being in either group, individuals enrolling in the program are randomly assigned to treatment (bump-up) and control groups. Those individuals assigned to the treatment, or “bump-up,” group receive the additional services, while individuals assigned to the control group receive the existing services offered by the grantee. A key factor in the bump-up design is having a single, persistent intervention for the treatment group that is substantially different from what the control group receives. Each of the grantees is implementing one of the following bump-up interventions: (1) professional staff mentoring/navigation or (2) occupation-specific training.
Under this task order, Capital Research Corporation – and subcontractors, The Urban Institute and Abt Associates, are designing and implementing a follow-up surveys of YPD treatment and control group members at 12 months after random assignment. This survey (and a second survey planned at 30 months after random assignment) will provide standardized and statistically valid data for analyses of impacts of YPDP services on such outcomes as employment and earnings, educational attainment, parenting, and receipt of cash assistance and other assistance. The survey will provide data from randomly assigned treatment and control group members on the following topics: Service Receipt; Mentoring Services; Educational Attainment Since Random Assignment; Employment and Earnings; Receipt of Cash Assistance; Receipt of Food Stamps and Other Assistance; Family Composition/Change; Relationship/Engagement with Children; Food Security; Housing and Housing Security; and Family Income/Contact Information
The follow-up surveys will provide a considerable range of outcome information needed to gauge the net impacts of YPDP bump-up services on treatment group members. For example, the surveys will allow for systematic comparison of employment, earnings, education, and parenting outcomes for the treatment and control group members to determine net impacts of the YPDP “bump-up services,” as well as provide valid and reliable data for understanding variation in types of services received by YPDP participants and the views of YPDP participants concerning the usefulness of services received. It is estimated that the follow-up surveys (which will be conducted under this task order and subsequent ones) will be conducted with a total of 2,900 YPD participants. The Capital Research Corporation research team will use the survey results to analyze net impacts and cost-effectiveness of the YPD intervention.