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This report synthesizes findings from recent evaluations of employment-focused reentry programs to inform the Partners for Reentry Opportunities in Workforce Development (PROWD) Grants Evaluation. Building on a prior literature review of employment-focused reentry programs (Lacoe & Betesh, 2019), the PROWD Grants Evaluation synthesized recent evidence from rigorous research (randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental designs) published between 2018 and 2023 that examined impacts on recidivism, employment, and earnings.

The Chief Evaluation Office of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL CEO) is committed to using innovative tools to meet the Department’s research, evaluation, and data analytics needs. In December 2021, DOL CEO commissioned the Westat Insight and American Institutes for Research® (AIR®) study team to explore potential opportunities to use machine learning methods to facilitate the automated data collection of labor-relevant data.

The report synthesizes findings from third-party evaluator (TPE)-conducted implementation evaluations and subsequent interim reports, supplemented by submitted quarterly narrative reports (QNRs) from March 2023. The synthesis aims to provide an overarching description of the first round of SCC (SCC1) grantees’ progress in implementing their workforce development and career pathways programming and highlight promising practices, implementation barriers, and lessons learned across the grantees.

The brief focuses on the 22 Pathway Home grants awarded in 2021 and describes the grantees’ experiences during their first year of implementation. This brief details how the Pathway Home grantees implemented services and established community partnerships provide community-based services that address participant needs and help connect them to employment opportunities.

The brief focuses on the 22 Pathway Home grants awarded in 2021 and describes the grantees’ experiences during their first year of implementation. This brief discusses the grants and describes the types of organizations funded, their locations, staffing structures, partnerships, and the services provided.

The brief focuses on the 22 Pathway Home grants awarded in 2021 and describes their experiences establishing the pre-release components of their programs during their first year of implementation. This brief describes how the Pathway Home grantees awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor in 2021 established programs within correctional facilities, including the challenges they encountered and the solutions they identified to address those challenges.

In 2017, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO), in collaboration with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA), funded contractor Mathematica, with Social Policy Research Associates, to conduct the Reentry Project Grants Evaluation.

The Reentry Projects (RP) Grant Evaluation Design Pre-Specification Plan follows the template that evaluators must use to meet the pre-specification practices articulated in OMB Memo M-20-12 Phase 4 Implementation of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018: Program Evaluation Standards and Practices.

The report presents the findings from the Reentry Project (RP) Grants implementation study, which includes analysis of data from virtual sites visits with 27 sites that received 2018 or 2019 grant or subgrant awards, a grantee survey administered to all 2017, 2018, and 2019 grantees, and Workforce Integrated Performance System (WIPS) records dating from program year (PY)2018 Q1 to PY2021 Q2 or July 1, 2018 to December 31, 2021. This report focuses on grantee survey findings and analysis of data from WIPS for 2018 and 2019 grantees.

The brief draws on a variety of sources, including survey responses from 89 Reentry Project (RP) grantees, interviews with RP program staff and partner organizations from 27 sites, interviews with 37 RP participants, interviews with 41 employers, and national workforce data from the Workforce Integrated Performance System (WIPS) all with the aim of describing the types of work-based learning (WBL) provided to RP participants, RP programs’ experiences in offering WBL opportunities to justice-involved individuals, and some lessons learned from offering WBL to the reentry population.

Using data collected as part of the Reentry Project (RP) Grants Evaluation, the brief describes the differences and similarities between adult and young adult grantees in terms of the services they offered and the implementation challenges they reported. The analysis draws on quantitative data from a survey of all 116 organizations that received RP grants. Data from the grantee survey were analyzed using descriptive statistics as well as chi-squared tests to determine whether differences across grant types were statistically significant.

The brief highlights the service needs that interviewed Reentry Project (RP) participants reported when leaving incarceration; their barriers to employment; their experiences during and after they participated in the programs; their perspectives on program elements such as vocational training, supportive services, and job placement; and their recommendations for improvement.

The brief describes the 116 Reentry Project (RP) grantees funded in 2017, 2018, and 2019 and aims to address the research question, “What are the variations in the model, structure, partnerships, and services of the grants?” To answer this question, descriptive statistics from survey data collected in all three grant years was used to summarize and highlight findings about RP program structures, partnerships, and services, in addition to chi-squared tests to determine whether any differences across grant years and grant types were statistically significant.

The brief draws on data collected from virtual site visits with 27 Reentry Project (RP) grantees to identify the industries grantees commonly focused on, describe industry-specific training they used, discuss the development of industry partnerships, and provide insights for connecting individuals with justice involvement to locally in-demand industries. Site visit data included interviews with 33 employers; together with grantee interviews, the visits highlighted successes and challenges grantees experienced when engaging and partnering with employers.

The brief draws on literature on risk/needs assessments in the criminal legal system and grantee survey data collected from 89 community-based organizations (CBOs) that were awarded U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Reentry Project (RP) grants from 2017 to 2019.

As part of its support of Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is committed to collecting and creating information in a way that supports data sharing and dissemination. Toward that end, DOL’s Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) hosted a series of three seminars during August 2022 on topics directly relevant to sharing data, protecting confidentiality, and building a culture to support sharing and responsible use. The one pager provides a summary of the seminars.

To assess the effectiveness of criminal justice policies, programs, or reforms, researchers frequently examine recidivism, defined as the return to criminal activity after a prior sanction (Council of State Governments Justice Center 2014; Deady 2014; National Institute of Justice 2022; Pratt and Eriksson 2013).

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) funded Evaluation of the Pathway Home Grant Program study was a result of the annual process to determine the Department’s research priorities for the upcoming year. It contributes to the labor evidence-base to inform Reentry and Employment and Training programs and policies and addresses Departmental strategic goals and priorities. In particular, the brief focuses on the first 20 Pathway Home grants awarded in 2020 and their experiences implementing their programs during the COVID-19 pandemic between January and December 2021.

The report for the Evaluation of the Pathway Home Grant Program. Individuals released from incarceration face substantial obstacles to successful reentry and self-sufficiency once in the community. The Pathway Home Grant program seeks to help mitigate these obstacles by providing linked pre- and post-release employment services to improve individuals’ chances of finding meaningful employment and avoiding recidivism.

In 2022, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration’s (ETA) Reentry Employment Opportunity (REO) Program to fund Mathematica, Inc. and its subcontractors—RTI International and Abt Associates—to conduct the Partners for Reentry Opportunities in Workforce Development (PROWD) Grants Evaluation. The PROWD grants effort is a first-of-its-kind partnership between DOL and the U.S.

In 2021, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) funded contractor Westat Insight and their partner American Institutes for Research to conduct the Explorations in Data Innovations project under the Administrative Data Research and Analysis portfolio of studies. This use case study was designed to explore options around employing machine learning to create and maintain a public-facing, labor-related data catalog.

More than 70 million Americans have some form of criminal record, which can limit their access to employment opportunities, eligibility for occupational licensure, and public benefits. The use of criminal background checks in the hiring process has also dramatically increased over the past decade, and there is reason to think that many criminal records are inaccurate. Prior research has not determined the extent of errors on criminal records.

In 2020, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to fund contractors Mathematica Policy Research with Social Policy Research Associates and the Council of State Governments Justice Center to conduct the Pathway Home Reentry Evaluation. The study aims to develop design options for an impact and implementation evaluation to assess the feasibility of conducting an impact evaluation and examine the implementation of the Pathway Home Reentry Grant program.

In 2020, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and funded contractor Mathematica Policy Research to conduct the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Research Portfolio Project.

In 2014, law enforcement agencies in the United States made nearly 1 million juvenile arrests. Roughly half of the cases formally processed resulted in youth being adjudicated delinquent. Youth with convictions face lasting collateral consequences such as decreased access to education, employment opportunities, and certain social welfare benefits, like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), aside from more direct consequences like fines, fees, or imprisonment. Recognizing this, the U.S.