Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

The presentation will discuss main findings from the quasi-experimental evaluation of the Linking Innovation, Knowledge and Employment (@LIKE) program. @LIKE was a workforce development program funded by the Department of Labor’s Workforce Innovation Fund (WIF) grant. The architects of @LIKE designed it to address skill gaps and provide educational and employment services to disconnected young adults ages 18-24. To be ‘disconnected,’ these individuals must have been disconnected from education and employment for at least 90 days, and face one or more of the following barriers: low income, gang involved, ex-offender, public assistance recipient, or recently separated veteran. @LIKE built on best practices and research on how to serve disconnected young adults by assigning each participant a dedicated Life Coach, utilizing innovative social/psychological assessments to understand participant needs and providing tailored services. The program served 664 individuals over a three-year time period.

IMPAQ International used a quasi-experimental design, to measure the program’s impact on a variety of labor market and educational outcomes (for example, unsubsidized employment and GED/high school diploma completion). Specifically, we used propensity score matching to evaluate the impacts of the @LIKE program on participating young adults, relative to a comparison group of participants receiving services under the Workforce Innovation Act (WIA). We also examined whether and to what extent impacts vary by individual demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The research also included an Implementation study and Process Study to identify successes and challenges, best practices, lessons learned, and barriers to scalability and replication, as well as a Cost-Benefit Analysis. One of the primary goals of this program was to develop a service delivery model that can be replicated across the country to improve the lives of other disconnected young adults. @LIKE’s evaluation helped to meet this goal by providing the workforce system with valuable insights into what program components are most effective in supporting participants to meet their employment and educational goals and how to meet the updated youth service provisions under WIOA. This evaluation contributed to the evidence base on the evaluations of programs focused on disconnected young adults, and provides a roadmap to serve such individuals effectively under the requirements of WIOA.

Specifically, this presentation will report on results from the quasi-experimental impact study, qualitative evaluation, and cost benefit analysis. Findings from the impact evaluation showed that @LIKE had a positive and statistically significant impact on the following outcomes: placement in unsubsidized employment, attainment of vocational training, completion of high school/GED, and program completion. The cost-benefit study findings indicated that the measured benefits of the @LIKE program exceed its measured costs, one year following program completion. Implementation findings highlighted the challenges faced in recruiting and engaging disconnected young adults. This presentation will also include discussion of program design, data sources, and best practices for collecting and utilizing high quality administrative data.