Advancing Employment Opportunities for Justice-Involved Individuals through Work-Based Learning: Experiences from Reentry Project Grantees

Advancing Employment Opportunities for Justice-Involved Individuals through Work-Based Learning: Experiences from Reentry Project Grantees

Published: Nov 30, 2022
Publisher: Social Policy Research Associates and Mathematica

Download

Associated Project

Reentry Projects Grant Evaluation: Serving Justice Involved Adults and Young Adults

Time frame: 2017-2024

Prepared for:

U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Chief Evaluation Office

Authors

Deanna Khemani

Leah Cadena-Igdalsky

Key Findings

  • Most (23 of 27) sites included in the study offered access to paid and/or unpaid Work-based Learning (WBL) opportunities, providing those services directly through their RP programs or through referrals to partner organizations such as American Job Centers (AJC), unions, community colleges, etc.
  • WBL offered justice-involved individuals opportunities to earn an income while engaging in training, building their workplace skills, and gaining real-world experience.
  • Future programs could benefit from providing additional supports, including supportive services, ongoing case management, and mentoring, to encourage participation and completion of WBL opportunities for justice-involved individuals.

This issue brief describes the types of work-based learning (WBL) opportunities offered to Reentry Projects (RP) participants, RP programs’ experiences providing WBL, and lessons learned from offering WBL. The brief draws on a variety of data collected for the RP implementation study, including a grantee survey, virtual site visit interviews, and information reported by grantees in the Workforce Integrated Performance System (WIPS).

Efficiency Meets Impact.
That's Progress Together.

To solve their most pressing challenges, organizations turn to Mathematica for deeply integrated expertise. We bring together subject matter and policy experts, data scientists, methodologists, and technologists who work across topics and sectors to help our partners design, improve, and scale evidence-based solutions.

Work With Us