The IPIC Youth Employment Services YES VOUCHER Initiative Promoting Outreach, Placement and Retentio

1
The IPIC Youth Employment Services (YES) VOUCHER
InitiativePromoting Outreach, Placement and
Retention Through Barrier Busting Vouchers
Administered by CBOs in Partnership with IPIC,
the Lilly Endowment and WIA

• Evaluation Team Andrew B. Hahn and Tom Leavitt
• IPIC Representatives Brooke Huntington,
  President
• Matthew Rager, YES Program Manager

2
Imagine. an ideal CBO initiative to address
outreach, placement and retention for the hardest
to serve urban out of school young adults.
2
3
What would you like to see in it?
3
4
How About.

• Access to social services
• But include help to social service agencies to
  change their focus to workforce development
• Provide high quality/high standards employment/
  training and GED options
• Use of case management and integrated MIS systems
• Extensive professional development
• Reliable ongoing help for just about anything
  that comes up (i.e., technical assistance
  capacity building)
• Real and useful ties to employers
• Flexibility in contracting (including
  performance-based)

4
5
But what is missing from this list?
5
6
Emergency Bill Paying!

• Remember Bill Clinton and his phrase, Its the
  Economy, Stupid!
• Well, we think the mantra should now be,
• Its the little things.
• Bust these!

6
7
What are some typical relatively small
financial barriers among clients that impact
outreach, placement and retention in CBO
initiatives?
7
8
Barriers include

• Transportation
• Legal assistance
• Probation fees
• Driving fines
• Court costs
• Clothing work, interview, uniforms, etc.
• Individual and family counseling
• Drug and alcohol abuse counseling and referrals

• Education training assistance
• Mentoring
• Child care
• Temporary housing/shelter
• Materials for individuals with disabilities
• Financial counseling
• Dependent care
• Limited health and dental care
• Emergency assistance

8
9
Why the bad rap on this both old and new idea?

• Volumes of research point to the little things
  that keep people mired in poverty cost of
  uniforms, tools training, medical bills,
  unreliable transportation, overdue rent,
  suspended license,..
• Yet the public has lingering images of FEMAs
  debit cards in Katrina and comparable horror
  stories when people were given money.

9
10
Policymakers Worry About Many Things When It
Comes to Bill Paying
10
11

• Fears of gaming and abuse
• Fear of dependency
• Fear of having weak sustainability plans
• Fear about systems needed for monitoring
• Lack of knowledge from similar programs WIA,
  Catholic Charities, FEMA, IDAs, Grants and Loans,
  DreamKeepers

11
12
Characteristics of the Indianapolis Voucher
Program and What This Means for Your Programs!

• The Indy definition of vouchers
• Emergency assistance to address barrier that may
  derail progress towards outcome
• Assistance goes to 3rd parties not participants
• YES network is comprised of 12-17 CBOs
• Research by Brandeis University shows the
  critical role of an intermediary and leadership

12
13
Characteristics of the Indianapolis Voucher
Program (contd)

• The development of a network is central but not
  enough known whether essential. It certainly
  helps the voucher element work
• Since 2003, 10,800 vouchers issued to almost
  2,700 individuals (over 2 million)
• Over 1,500 youth have secured jobs
• 900 have retained jobs at least 60 days
• Almost 600 have retained jobs for 180 days

13
14
Others can do this, too... Take this idea home
with you

• United Ways could set aside a pool for cash
  assistance.
• CBOs could run a fundraising campaign together to
  raise voucher dollars.
• Local foundations may find this idea appealing,
  especially small and family foundations seeking
  an upfront and personal kind of philanthropy.
• Federal and state policies could help promote
  public/private partnerships involving vouchers
• Self helpbuilds on traditions of self-help and
  self-reliance in FBOs, e.g., Black churches...

14
15
More

• Voucher funding could be added as line item in
• YouthBuild grants
• Re-entry grants
• Other DOL initiatives
• Replication could build on interests in CCTs,
  longer term asset and saving approaches and
  shared ideas across political spectrum about
  mutual responsibility, quid pro quos, etc.

16
Implementation Assistance

• If you try this, IPIC, Lilly Endowment Brandeis
  University are available to assist replication
  efforts with the following resources
• Manuals and implementation guides
• Research reports
• Forms and procedures
• Training protocols
• Monitoring of client files
• Spot check lessons
• Templates from MIS system

16
17
Issues that might come up

• Ceiling on financial amount of vouchers
• Restrict repeat customers
• Network compared to stand-alone models
• Restrictions on approved uses
• Strengthen quid pro quo
• Make conditional on certain outcomes before
  issuing voucher

17
18
Contact Information in Brochure
For more information on IPICs voucher program,
please contact

• Brooke Huntington, President, Indianapolis
  Private Industry Council, Market Square Center,
  151 N. Delaware St., Ste. 1600. [phone].
• Matthew Rager, consultant and project director,
  Indianapolis Private Industry Council, Market
  Square Center, 151 N. Delaware St., Ste. 1600.
  [phone]
• Andrew Hahn, Professor, Brandeis University,
  Heller School for Social Policy and Management,
  Center for Youth and Communities, [phone]
• Willis K. Bright Jr. Director, youth programs,
  education, Lilly Endowment, Indianapolis, Indiana
  46208

18
19
The Research
19
20
Evaluation Activities

• 3 rounds of retrospective participant surveys
  some aimed at respondents to earlier surveys to
  see if progress maintained over time. Survey
  responses have been matched with program database
  information on outcomes, voucher usage, etc.
• Focus groups with youth participants
• Interviews with and survey of provider personnel
• Frequent site visits to debrief IPIC management

20
21
A few survey findings from 2008 survey

• Median number of vouchers received by respondents
  was six with a median value of 62.50 for
  individual vouchers
• The median total value of vouchers received by
  individuals was 1,000
• The highest number of vouchers were used for
  transportation, but in terms of dollars spent the
  biggest uses were education/training and housing.

21
22
22
23
23
24
Situation After Receipt of the Voucher

• Jobs and Educational Progress
• 73 got a job since their last voucher and
• Among the group who had been jobless before
  joining the programs, 83 found employment
• Many still in training
• 36 completed training since getting their last
  voucher and 18 earned a GED

24
25
Attribution

• 60 report being much better off due to the
  voucher(s) and 26 report being somewhat better
  off. Only 11 report they are pretty much the
  same.
• Positive responses are more common among males
  than females 94 of males report being much
  better or somewhat better than before vouchers
  compared to 78 of females.

25
26
More on Attribution

• 80 report that the vouchers helped a lot in
  getting them to get where they are and 17 said
  it helped somewhat
• Those receiving higher total amounts of vouchers
  are more likely to say that vouchers helped a
  lot in getting them to where they are.

26
27
27