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Many youth in America are not on track for labor market success. One factor that increases the risk of poor labor market outcomes among these youth is dropping out of school (Rumberger 2020). Youth who drop out of school are at greater risk for job instability and for lower long-term earnings (Hair et al. 2009). They are also more likely to struggle with mental health and substance abuse issues (Maynard et al. 2015). These challenges are compounded for youth who have early involvement with the juvenile or criminal justice systems. Even low levels of involvement can disrupt school attendance and increase the likelihood of dropping out of school (Kirk and Sampson 2013; Hjalmarsson 2008). Additional collateral consequences—including restrictions on financial aid, employer discrimination, and occupational licensing restrictions— also create barriers to future labor market success (Simpson and Holthe 2018). Youth with prior involvement in the justice system need targeted support to overcome these barriers (Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention 2000).

The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe (YC) Program is an evidence-based program for helping youth who have dropped out of high school get back on track. An evaluation of this program for youth ages 16 to 18 found that three years after program entry, YC participants were more likely than the control group to have obtained a GED or high school diploma, earned college credits, and be employed (Millenky et al. 2011). The YC model includes a 20-week, community-based residential program followed by a year of post-program mentoring that aims to build youth confidence and maturity, teach practical life skills, and help youth obtain a high school diploma or GED. Building on this successful model, the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) funded YC programs in three states, to expand their YC programs to include more court-involved youth and to create a follow-on residential occupational training program called Job ChalleNGe (JC).

DOL’s Chief Evaluation Office (CEO), in partnership with ETA, contracted with Mathematica and its subcontractors, Social Policy Research Associates and MDRC, to evaluate the JC grants. The evaluation examined the implementation of these grants and the outcomes for youth participants related to postsecondary education, employment, and criminal justice involvement in the two years following program involvement. The report describes the findings and presents lessons from the experiences of the three grantees and participating youth.

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Research Questions

• How was the Youth Challenge program implemented under the Job Challenge grant?
• How was the Job Challenge program implemented?
• How did the programs recruit and select youth for Job Challenge?
• How did youth experience the post-residential phase?
• What were the outcomes of Youth Challenge and Job Challenge participants?
• What expectations did youth have for the future?
• What can we learn from these grants about possible program models to serve court-involved and other at-risk youth?
• What can we learn from this implementation and outcomes study about the conditions that would be necessary to have a future impact study evaluation of Job Challenge?

Key Takeaways

• While the JC grants aimed to provide more services to court-involved youth, grantees reported difficulty reconciling that goal with the existing National Guard criteria for the YC program. Without a clear definition from DOL and an agreement with the National Guard that allowed a shift from the existing criteria, programs defined court involvement as they saw fit.
• Grantees continued to serve court-involved youth and placed a higher priority on documenting court involvement, but they did not substantially alter YC recruitment practices to reach new groups of participants or adjust service delivery for court-involved youth.
• JC Grantees successfully established new occupationally-focused, residential programs, creating key partnerships with community colleges. The community colleges provided intensive, certificate-based vocational training and supplementary education.
• Programs reported a need for increased staff and greater supervision and/or discipline in the JC program.
• Across the three grantees, 86 percent of JC participants were involved in a productive activity (employment, education, or military enlistment) approximately 14 months after JC. At the time of the survey, 81 percent of JC participants were employed.
• Court-involved JC participants had similar rates of post-program employment to non-court-involved participants, with no measurable differences in weekly earnings, benefits, hours, and job tenure.
• Court-involved youth were less than half as likely to be enrolled in postsecondary education one year after the YC program, with only 36 percent of court-involved participants receiving a credential compared to 50 percent of non-court-involved participants.
• Court-involved JC participants had higher rates of post-program justice system involvement, with 14 percent arrested in the year following YC, relative to only 5 percent of non-court-involved participants.
  • An impact study would be needed to understand whether these outcomes were influenced by the program or merely reflect individual differences among program participants.

Citation

Berk, J., Kahn-Lang Spitzer, A., Stein, J., Needels, K., Geckeler, C., Paprocki, A., Gutierrez, I., Millenky, M. (2020). Mathematica. Evaluation of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe /Job ChalleNGe Program Final Report. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) sponsors independent evaluations and research, primarily conducted by external, third-party contractors in accordance with the Department of Labor Evaluation Policy and CEO’s research development process.