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Participation in CEO Activities

Table 3 shows participation in CEO’s core program activities for the program group during the first year of the follow-up period. These data are drawn from CEO’s management information system. (In later reports, data from a follow-up survey of program and control group members will be used to present a fuller picture of service receipt for both groups, including services not provided by CEO.)

  • Life Skills class. The first step in the CEO program is completing the four-day Life Skills class. More than three-fourths of the program group (79 percent) completed the Life Skills class. About 38 percent of the control group completed the shorter version of this class that was specifically designed for them (not shown). It may be that, without the promise of transitional employment, many control group members were not highly motivated to complete their class.

  • Worksite assignment. Upon completing the Life Skills class, the program group members were placed in transitional employment at a Neighborhood Work Project (NWP) worksite — the core of CEO’s program. About 72 percent of the program group worked in NWP during the follow-up period.1 Most of the participants who worked in NWP moved to this employment quickly, within seven days after random assignment (the median is six days).

  • Length of transitional employment. Overall, just under half of the program group worked in NWP for at least one month. Among those who worked in NWP, the average length of employment was about eight weeks (bottom panel of Table 3). Working longer in NWP is not always better; an individual may be deemed “job ready” and placed in a permanent job after a relatively short period in NWP. CEO program staff members try to address issues and move people to permanent employment as efficiently as possible.

  • Job coaching. About 60 percent of the program group met with a job coach at least once, but a large majority of the participants who worked at an NWP worksite — 82 percent — had such a meeting. Among those who worked in NWP for at least two weeks (8 days), almost 90 percent met with a job coach (not shown).

  • Job development. About 57 percent of program group participants met with a CEO job developer during the one-year follow-up period; the figure is 79 percent for those who worked at an NWP worksite, and 87 percent for those who worked in NWP for at least two weeks (the latter figure is not shown).

  • Job placement. CEO keeps records of job placements that are made by its job developers (called direct placements), as well as “self placements” — instances in which participants find jobs on their own and report this to CEO. Just over 30 percent of the full program group had one of these types of job placement recorded in CEO’s database (most of these were direct placements). The placement rate is 41 percent among those who worked in NWP, and 45 percent among those who worked in NWP for at least two weeks, the point at which participants typically begin working with a job developer. Of course, these placement statistics are not a comprehensive measure of employment because some participants may have found jobs and not reported this to CEO. The UI records (and, eventually, the survey) will provide a more complete picture of employment.

 

The Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration
Table 3
Participation in CEO Activities for the Program Group
Center for Employment Opportunities
Outcome Program Group
Completed Life Skills class (%) 78.9
Worked in Neighborhood Work Project (NWP) (%) 71.7
Weeks worked in NWP (%)a Never worked in NWP 28.4
Less than 1 week 5.5
1-4 weeks 20.8
5-12 weeks 28.5
13-24 weeks 14.1
More than 24 weeks 2.8
Days between random assignment date and (NWP) (%) Never worked in NWP 28.4
0-7 48.4
8-14 14.8
More than 14 8.5
Met with a job coach (%) 59.5
Met with a job developer (%) 57.4
Placed in a non-NWP job (%)b 30.2
Among those who worked in NWP (N=407) Met with a job coach (%) 81.6
Met with a job developer (%) 78.6
Average weeks worked in NWP 8.3
Median days between random assignment and NWP 6.0
Placed in a non-NWP job (%)b 40.8
Sample size 568
SOURCES: MDRC calculations from CEO's Network for Information Gathering Evaluation and Learning (NIGEL) database.
NOTES: This table reflects program participation and NWP employment between January 2004 and October 2006. The sample in this table includes program group clients randomly assigned between January 2004 and October 2005. There were 9 control group members (2%) who worked in NWP during the follow-up period. NWP outcomes for these control group members are not shown in the table.
a It is important to note that weeks worked may not be consecutive but includes a total of weeks worked after an individual's random assignment date. This variable is created by taking total days worked in NWP and dividing by 4 because participants work 4 days per week in NWP and attend job coaching or other CEO services on the 5th day.
b Includes non-NWP employment placements by CEO staff and self-placement employment that CEO was made aware of.


1 According to CEO’s management information system, nine members of the control group — 2 percent — worked at an NWP worksite at some point during the one-year follow-up period. (back)

 

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