Study Details | Pathways to Work

26710-Opportunity Works

Study quality: Low

Low

Reason for the rating: This study received a low study quality rating because it is a quasi-experimental design that does not adjust estimated impacts for potentially important differences between the intervention and comparison groups.

Intervention: Opportunity Works

Population and employment barriers:

Disconnected from work, Specific employment barriers, Young adults (aged 16-24)

Services provided:

Case management, Education, Financial education, Soft skills training, Supportive services, Training (Occupational or sectoral training), Work readiness activities (Job development/job placement)

Setting: Urban only

Study design

Design:

Quasi-experimental design

Study group formation:

The intervention condition consisted of youth who enrolled in the Opportunity Works impact evaluation sites in Harford, Philadelphia, and Seattle at any time between June 2015 and July 2017. Eligibility criteria for program enrollment varied across sites based on age and gender, but all participants were between ages 18 and 24. Youth in the comparison condition were recruited from programs that were in the same region as the intervention group sites and that served disconnected youth but did not use the Back on Track framework. Comparison condition youth were matched to intervention condition youth using a propensity score matching approach based on baseline characteristics. The matching procedure was a nearest neighbor matching approach with replacement, meaning that youth in the comparison condition could be matched with more than one individual in the intervention condition. Analysis and assignment were at the individual level.

Time period of study:

The intervention was studied from the start of baseline survey collection in October 2015 until the end of follow-up data collection in January 2019.

Pathways only reports results from studies with a study quality rating of high or moderate.

Sample characteristics

Age

Young adults

100%

Specific employment barriers

Were disconnected workers

100%

Intervention implementation

Implementing organization:

The primary implementing organizations were Capital Workforce Partners in Hartford, the Philadelphia Youth Network, and United Way King County and the Community Center for Education Results in Seattle/King County.

Intervention services:

Participants in the intervention group received services from Opportunity Works programs that implemented the Back on Track framework for improving college access and employment outcomes. Each intervention program site focused on the postsecondary and career-bridging phase of the framework, which was geared toward helping youth gain necessary skills to achieve postsecondary and career success. The specific services varied by program site, but services offered included case management, college-readiness instruction and coaching, goal setting, support with high school completion, education and training, career planning and exploration, job development and support, support for financial planning, occupational skills training, and transportation assistance.

Mandatory services:

None.

Comparison services:

Youth in the comparison condition participated in youth-serving programs in the same regions as those in the intervention group. The programs did not offer services following the Back on Track framework. These services were described as business-as-usual programming, which typically consisted of less intensive services than those in the intervention condition.

Study publications

Anderson, Theresa, Breno Braga, Teresa Derrick-Mills, Alan Dodkowitz, H. Elizabeth Peters, Charmaine Runes, and Mary Winkler (2019). New insights into the Back on Track model's effects on opportunity youth outcomes: Opportunity Works final evaluation report, Washington, DC, Urban Institute. Available at https://www.urban.org/research/publication/new-insights-back-track-models-effects-opportunity-youth-outcomes.

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The Pathways Clearinghouse refers to interventions by the names used in study reports or manuscripts. Some intervention names may use language that is not consistent with our style guide, preferences, or the terminology we use to describe populations.

Study of Opportunity Works