Job Readiness Program Research Articles

Mentoring, employment assistance, and enhanced staff outreach for older youth in care: Outcomes from a randomized controlled trial

Youth who exit out-of-home care to live on their own face high risks for homelessness, unemployment, and incarceration. Federal support for the extension of services after age 18 provides the opportunity to better support youth in early adulthood, but to fully realize this potential requires the development of services with demonstrated positive impacts. This study contributes to the limited methodologically strong research in this area in a randomized controlled trial examining the impact of job readiness training, mentoring, and enhanced outreach by a youth specialist in an urban sample of youth (N = 152, 82% Black). Youth were interviewed at baseline when they were 17–20 years old and 14 months later to assess youth outcomes including employment, school enrollment, delinquency, and depression. Those randomized to receive enhanced services all received regular outreach from a youth specialist and could choose to participate in a mentoring and job readiness programs. Although less than a third of eligible youth fully completed either formal program, youth in the enhanced services condition had significantly fewer arrests, lower delinquency, and increased hours of employment. These outcomes were unrelated to changes in social support needs, counter to expectations. Future research is needed to build on these findings and those from other programs with positive effects in other areas such as educational outcomes to create effective service systems for older youth in care.

46. Needs Assessment of Implementing a Mental Health Intervention for Low Income Youth in Job Readiness Programs

46. Needs Assessment of Implementing a Mental Health Intervention for Low Income Youth in Job Readiness Programs

Scanning and synthesizing Canadian policies that address the school-to-work transition of youth and young adults with disabilities

BackgroundDisability faced by a young person can impact the school-to-work transition and shape health and well-being over the life course. Unique barriers to entry and advancement within the labor market that are relevant to young people with disabilities underscore the need for tailored policy-level supports. ObjectivesTo examine and describe policies that support the school-to-work transition of young people with disabilities in Canada. MethodsA scan of policies which focused on the school-to-work transition of young people with disabilities across Canada was conducted between June 2019 and January 2020. Searches were completed within federal, provincial and territorial policy portals. Each policy relating to employment participation of people with disabilities was summarized. Policies that focused on the school-to-work-specific were synthesized using Bemelmans-Vidic, Rist and Vedung's policy tool framework. ResultsA total of 36 policies were identified by our scan that focused on the employment of people with disabilities. Only five policies explicitly addressed the school-to-work transition. All existing policies were implemented at the provincial level and aimed to promote entry into employment. The synthesis of policies revealed that financial policy tools were primarily used to incentivize employment, provision of workplace accommodations, or the development and implementation of job readiness programs. ConclusionOur analysis of federal, provincial and territorial policies in Canada uncovered a limited number of policies that specifically support the school-to-work transition. Addressing these policy gaps can increase the inclusion of young people with disabilities in the labor market.

Effect of a Community-Based Gender Norms Program on Sexual Violence Perpetration by Adolescent Boys and Young Men

Engaging adolescent boys and young men in preventing violence against women is a potentially impactful public health strategy. To evaluate the effectiveness of a community-based, gender-transformative program (ie, Manhood 2.0) on perpetration of gender-based violence by adolescent boys and young men. In this unblinded cluster randomized clinical trial, neighborhoods were designated as the unit of clustering (1:1 allocation). Three-month (ie, time point 2 [T2]) and 9-month (ie, time point 3 [T3]) follow-ups were conducted. The trial took place in 20 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, neighborhoods and 1 centrally located site with concentrated disadvantage. Pittsburgh-based adolescent boys and young men (ages 13 to 19 years) were recruited between July 27, 2015, and June 5, 2017, through youth-serving organizations and community-based alternatives to residential placement for juvenile justice-involved youth. Intention-to-treat analysis was conducted from June 2018 to November 2019. Manhood 2.0, an international program adapted for adolescent boys and young men in US urban communities, encourages these individuals to challenge gender norms that foster violence against women and unhealthy sexual relationships. Individuals in the control population received job-readiness training. Each program was 18 hours. The primary outcome was change in participant-level perpetration of sexual violence (SV) or adolescent relationship abuse (ARA) at T3. Among 866 participants, 465 individuals (54%) enrolled in 11 intervention clusters and 401 individuals (46%) enrolled in 10 control clusters. In the intervention group, 325 participants (70%) were analyzed at T2 and 334 participants (72%) were analyzed at T3; in the control group, 262 participants (65%) were analyzed at T2 and 301 participants (75%) were analyzed at T3. Mean (SD) age was 15.5 (1.6) years; 609 participants (70%) self-identified as non-Hispanic Black, and 178 (20%) self-identified as Hispanic, multiracial, or other race/ethnicity other than White. Among individuals in the intervention group, 296 participants (64%) reported any SV or ARA perpetration at baseline, and 173 participants (52%) reported any SV or ARA perpetration at T3. Among individuals in the control group, 213 participants (53%) reported any SV or ARA perpetration at baseline, and 124 participants (41%) reported any SV or ARA perpetration at T3). The difference in reduction between groups was not significant. There was no evidence of an intervention effect for the primary outcome (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 1.32; 95% CI, 0.86-2.01; P = .20). The findings from this evaluation of a community-based gender-transformative program for adolescent boys and young men did not show a significant intervention effect in reducing SV or ARA perpetration between Manhood 2.0 and a job-readiness control program. Combining gender-transformative approaches with job-readiness programs may be relevant for violence prevention in low-resource urban settings. Attention to improving implementation and strategies to sustain such community-based efforts are needed. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02427061.

Both sides of the Paycheck: Recommending Thrift to the Poor in Job Readiness Programs

This article documents how job readiness programs—as anchors of the devolved organizational landscape of neoliberal poverty governance in the United States—endeavor to instill within the poor not simply the virtue of work, but the virtue of thrift, and thus orient them to “both sides of the paycheck.” Using a comparative ethnographic study of two community-based, government-funded nonprofit job readiness programs, we show that this pedagogic focus on budgeting is central to the overall goal of conditioning clients to embrace and endure a degraded labor market. Recognizing that most participants will remain poor with or without low-wage employment, these programs suggest that it is as crafty consumers that participants may retake control of their lives. Despite the programs’ differing target populations and racialized and gendered logics, both attempt to accommodate participants to the dictates of the neoliberal economic order: jobs are hard to find and, even if you get one, wages will not be enough.

Examining Psychological Self-Sufficiency Among Low-Income Jobseekers with Mental Health Barriers.

The study is to investigate psychological self-sufficiency-the force within someone that activates cognitive and non-cognitive process of shifting perceived barriers into hope actions-as it relates to economic self-sufficiency among jobseekers with mental health barriers. Among a sample of 2455 low-income jobseekers in job readiness programs at six community-based agencies in Chicago, a subsample of 424 who self-identified as having mental illness barriers are selected to analyze the relationships between employment hope, employment barriers, and economic self-sufficiency using structural equation modeling. Results indicate that employment hope mediates the path between perceived employment barriers and economic self-sufficiency. The study further highlights the positive effects of employment barriers on employment hope among jobseekers with perceived mental illnesses. The findings support growing evidence that psychological self-sufficiency is positively associated with gaining economic self-sufficiency in workforce development programs.

Job-Readiness Programs Are Foundational to Successful Employment Outcomes

Job-Readiness Programs Are Foundational to Successful Employment Outcomes

Disciples and dreamers: job readiness and the making of the US working class

Job readiness programs are a propitious site for investigating the literal making of the US working class. With the imposition of workfarist policies, these programs have become a mainstay of social service provision to, and paternalist management of, the poor. We draw upon ethnographic fieldwork carried out in two different job readiness programs to illustrate variations in the ideological frameworks for this project of working class formation. Our first case, a prominent faith-based program targeted to the homeless, draws upon scripture to produce what we call “disciples” who treat work as a biblical mandate and way of serving the Lord. Our second case, a local nonprofit program serving welfare recipients and other poor job seekers, draws upon motivational discourse and practices to produce “dreamers” who cling to the promise that work delivers both upward mobility and personal fulfillment. Despite their differing languages and logics, both programs aim to accommodate participants to the world of low-wage work, instill within them the moral value of labor, and develop worker subjectivities premised on the obfuscation of class and the optimization of employability.

Comparing Ex-offenders Who Use and Decline Job Readiness Training

ABSTRACTReentry research has primarily focused on systemic and structural issues, with relatively little attention paid to the individual differences among ex-offender participation in community-based reentry services. Researchers often assume that the limiting factor for utilization of reentry services is the capacity for these services, without taking into account individual agency. This study examines factors that contribute to whether individuals participate or forego services, using data from a North Texas nonprofit client support organization, Texas ReEntry Services. Utilizing descriptive statistics and logistic regression, the researchers examine individuals who participate in the Job Readiness Program and compare them to individuals who do not utilize this service. Initial findings suggest that only a small percentage of unemployed ex-offenders take advantage of employment training and other free services.

An Ecosystem Approach to Employment and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Relatively little is yet known about employment readiness and elements that promote access to, and the retention of, employment for adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This paper posits elements within the ecosystem of employment and ASD. The ecosystem approach locates employment among persons with ASD as inextricably linked with broader community resources, family support, workplace capacity building (e.g., employer, co-workers) and policy. Application of the approach is offered through process evaluation data yielded from an ecosystem-informed job readiness program entitled, 'EmploymentWorks Canada'. Findings illustrate job readiness in the context of the broader ecosystem that envelopes salient components in the aim of community engagement and quality of life. Recommendations are offered for community-based applications and for program and research development.

Jobless and Godless: Religious neoliberalism and the project of evangelizing employability in the US The authors contributed equally to the research for and writing of this article.

In the wake of welfare reform, there has been growing scholarly attention to ‘religious neoliberalism’ and, specifically, to the practices and politics of faith-based organizations in neoliberalized landscapes of social service provision. While much of this scholarship has suggested a seamless ‘fusion’ between conservative evangelicalism and neoliberal ideology, ethnographic research has tended to reveal the far more complicated, and contradictory, reality of evangelical social projects as they play out on the ground. Presenting the first in-depth ethnography of a faith-based job-readiness program, this article examines the contradictory logics operative within the project of what we call ‘evangelizing employability.’ Targeting joblessness, the program urges entrepreneurial independence. Targeting godlessness, the program urges righteous dependence on God. The project of evangelizing employability reveals the extraordinary utility of religion for the enactment of neoliberal priorities and policies of work enforcement and contributes to our understanding of religious neoliberalism and its class-based contradictions.

“Work as unto the Lord”: Enhancing Employability in an Evangelical Job-Readiness Program

The 1996 passage of welfare reform radically reshaped the principles and practices of poverty management in the U.S. On the one hand, it brought about an end to welfare as an entitlement and imposed rigid time limits, work requirements, and a programmatic supply-sided focus on “job-readiness.” On the other hand, it permitted and promoted the expansion of faith-based organizations in the provision of social services. This ethnographic case study of a prominent faith-based job-readiness program--Jobs for Life--is situated at the underexplored nexus of these two trends. Drawing upon participant observation in a Jobs for Life class, in-depth interviews with class instructors and participants, and content analysis of organizational materials, this article documents the program’s use of biblical principles and teachings to expound on the moral irreproachability of work and to fabricate “employable” subjects who submit themselves to both God and the employer. At play is a project that we call the “righteous responsibilization” of the poor, a responsibilization achieved through religious salvation. The case of Jobs for Life, we argue, not only extends our understanding of “religious neoliberalism” (Hackworth 2012), revealing how it shapes the process of subjectification and practices of poverty management. It also remediates a tension at the heart of neoliberal ideology between its emphasis on individualistic entrepreneurialism and its demand for submission to the abstract, alien decrees of the market. In the religious neoliberal framework exemplified by Jobs for Life, deference to capital is recast as the first step toward the entrepreneurial achievement of individual salvation.

Psychological and economic self-sufficiency among low-income jobseekers with physical disability barriers

The purpose of this research is to investigate the process of psychological empowerment by way of examining the effects of perceived employment barrier on employment hope, and employment hope on economic self-sufficiency. A structural equation modeling analysis was used with a sample of 517 participants in a job readiness program of a community-based social service organization in Chicago. Results indicate that employment hope mediates the path between perceived barriers and economic self-sufficiency. Findings provide preliminary evidence to support an empowerment-based approach to rehabilitation, promoting self-sufficiency among people with physical disabilities using interventions that address employment barriers and employment hope.

Psychological and economic self-sufficiency among low-income jobseekers with physical disability barriers

The purpose of this research is to investigate the process of psychological empowerment by way of examining the effects of perceived employment barrier on employment hope, and employment hope on economic self-sufficiency. A structural equation modeling analysis was used with a sample of 517 participants in a job readiness program of a community-based social service organization in Chicago. Results indicate that employment hope mediates the path between perceived barriers and economic self-sufficiency. Findings provide preliminary evidence to support an empowerment-based approach to rehabilitation, promoting self-sufficiency among people with physical disabilities using interventions that address employment barriers and employment hope.

Longitudinal outcomes of Project SEARCH in upstate New York

BACKGROUND: Project SEARCH is a successful job readiness program for high school students with disabilities, ages 18–21, and is recognized for its innovative approach and collaborative efforts between business, education and vocational rehabilitative services. Project SEARCH employment outcomes far exceed the national average rate of employment for people with disabilities, with a 68% success rate in transitioning students from high school into competitive employment. However, little is known about the long term employment outcomes for the young people who have completed the training program. OBJECTIVE: This study, that includes longitudinal data collected from three Project SEARCH sites in Upstate New York that have an impressive 83% success rate overall, provides the first longitudinal analysis of the impact of Project SEARCH. CONCLUSION: Data collected as part of this 5-year evaluation project indicate promising trends; and support the notion that the Project SEARCH model is successfully preparing young students with disabilities with the skills necessary to both obtain and retain employment in integrated work settings. While these findings are promising, further research is needed to substantiate the reported outcomes.

The Professional Clothing Bank as Evidence-Based Practice

Little research exists linking interview-appropriate attire to improved employment outcomes for women. Thus, it appears that the professional clothing bank has not been investigated as evidence-based practice. To provide preliminary evidence for clothing banks, in this article the author synthesizes findings from existing research on the provision of a professional clothing bank as a means for offering interview-appropriate attire to poor women in job readiness programming. For context, job readiness programs are explored and a case study of one program operating a professional clothing bank is presented. Finally, preliminary considerations for planning and implementing clothing banks based on this literature review are given.

Leadership and Job Readiness: Addressing Social Determinants of Health Among Ruralafrican American Men

There is increased recognition that the inequitable distribution of social determinants acts as a stressor that influences health outcomes. Men on the Move’s Leadership and Job Readiness (LJR) program was developed to improve employment opportunities and build leadership capacity for African American men living in a rural community. Pre-post questionnaires and interviews were conducted with participants to assess the immediate impact of LJR. Paired t-tests indicated that those respondents who were out of work significantly increased certain dimensions of their hope scores. Results also indicated increases in some elements of active coping and decreases in risky behavior. Using a linear regression model, increased hope was found to be a significant predictor of improvements in participants’ coping and behavior scores. Qualitative interviews showed increases in communication, job readiness and coping skills as well as an increased sense of hope and understanding among participants of their role as leaders in their community.

Contestation and Accommodation: Constructions of Lone Mothers’ Subjectivity Through Workfare Discourse and Practice

This article examines the ways in which dominant discourses about poor lone mothers are both contested and accommodated among three groups of actors within the workfare system in Toronto, Canada. Drawing on qualitative data from a national research project on lone mothers and social assistance, the authors examine and analyze how lone mothers construct their own subjectivity, as well as how it is constructed by workers in state-contracted nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that deliver job-readiness and related workfare programs and by welfare workers who assess and administer welfare benefits.

Spirituality As a Strength of Afican‐American Women Affected by Welfare Reform

Spirituality, including religious community participation, is commonly an important aspect of life and a significant strength in African‐American communities, especially for women dealing with issues of poverty. In order to deepen knowledge about how this works in people's daily lives, this qualitative study explored how a group of 44 African‐American women in a job readiness program located in a Midwestern urban area utilized spirituality as a strength in response to challenges of poverty and welfare reform. Findings reveal participants' views about the following themes: spirituality as a source of strength; definitions of spirituality; spirituality expressed in religious practices; spirituality infused in daily life; spiritual dreams and visions for life direction; spiritual ways of coping with poverty, welfare, and welfare reform; and spiritual qualities of the job readiness program. One vignette is presented to illustrate the all‐pervading influence of spirituality in a participant's life. Finally, implications and lessons learned for social work practice and education are suggested.

Transition From Welfare to Work: Self-Esteem and Self-Efficacy Influence on the Employment Outcome of African American Women

Empirical strength-based research focusing exclusively on African American female welfare recipients and employment outcome is limited. This study examined whether self-esteem and self-efficacy influenced the employment of African American female welfare recipients. Findings indicated that recipients entered the job-readiness program with a significantly high level of self-esteem. Their self-efficacy, however, was positively influenced by the job-readiness program, and once it was completed, the recipient's self-efficacy decreased.