The Young Parents Demonstration (YPD) was a federal initiative to test the effectiveness of providing enhanced services to young parents and expectant parents ages 16 to 24 and determine whether such services improved their educational and employment outcomes. ETA awarded 17 grants in three rounds between June 2009 (13 Rounds I/II grantees) and June 2011 (4 Rounds III grantess) and the grants ended in December 2012 and December 2015, respectively. As part of the YPD, grantees were required to implement a differential experimental research design whereby treatment group members received an additional level of service above and beyond the base level of services provided to the control group. The treatment interventions varied across grantees, with some providing mentoring services and others providing guided employment, education, training and related supports. More than 3,700 young parents and expectant parents were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups.

The YPD evaluation reports present impact results on employment and earnings outcomes resulting from the enhanced services provided to participants. The reports also present key findings and lessons learned from the implementation analysis which describes the characteristics of the participants served and the base and enhanced services provided. An issue brief synthesizes impact results across the two evaluation reports and includes exploratory analyses made possible by matching participant data with National Directory of New Hires wage records obtained in February 2018 for the Rounds I/II grantees. The reports identify lessons learned on structuring future approaches for at-risk youth demonstrations.