Evaluating LEAP’s Early Years

In 2015, the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion and the Cor­po­ra­tion for Nation­al and Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vice launched the first phase of Learn and Earn to Achieve Poten­tial (LEAP)™ — an ambi­tious, mul­ti­mil­lion-dol­lar ini­tia­tive to boost employ­ment and edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties for young peo­ple ages 15 to 25 who’ve expe­ri­enced home­less­ness or been involved in pub­lic systems.

READ THE LEAP EVALUATION

The effort has been dri­ven by 10 local part­ner­ships in eight states, which have used two proven mod­els — Jobs for America’s Grad­u­ates (JAG) and JFF’s Back on Track — to help these youth suc­ceed in school and at work.

A new study from non­prof­it research firm MDRC eval­u­ates the part­ner­ships’ ear­ly imple­men­ta­tion of these mod­els, includ­ing ways they’ve recruit­ed and retained youth, devel­oped cross-sys­tem part­ner­ships and inte­grat­ed wrap­around ser­vices to cre­ate path­ways to opportunity.

“Our goal with LEAP has always been to adapt estab­lished strate­gies in ways that meet the unique chal­lenges young peo­ple who are out of school and out of work face and that build on their immense tal­ents and skills,” says Patrice Cromwell, Casey’s direc­tor of youth eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty. ​“This eval­u­a­tion is an impor­tant step in that direc­tion because it high­lights what core strengths we should be build­ing upon in the next phase and what areas we may still need to explore or improve.”

In its analy­sis of enroll­ment, imple­men­ta­tion, ear­ly out­comes and cost, MDRC found that:

• LEAP sites enrolled near­ly 2,800 young peo­ple dur­ing their first three years. Among that group, more than 80% are youth of col­or; 51% have been involved in fos­ter care; 37% have been involved in the jus­tice sys­tem; and 50% have expe­ri­enced homelessness.
• Many of these young peo­ple have faced bar­ri­ers that con­strained their poten­tial and made it hard to suc­ceed in tra­di­tion­al edu­ca­tion and employ­ment pro­grams. These obsta­cles includ­ed lim­it­ed fam­i­ly sup­port, hous­ing insta­bil­i­ty and trauma.
• Near­ly 70% of Back on Track par­tic­i­pants — a major­i­ty of whom had a high school diplo­ma and pre­vi­ous work expe­ri­ence pri­or to enroll­ment — pro­gressed into a post­sec­ondary edu­ca­tion or job-train­ing pro­gram. Forty per­cent of these young peo­ple already com­plet­ed their first year.
• Among young peo­ple who com­plet­ed JAG’s ​“Active Phase” — dur­ing which the major­i­ty of ser­vices are deliv­ered — 40% earned a high school cre­den­tial. And of that group, 76% were either employed or in school at some point dur­ing the fol­low­ing six months.
• Cross-sec­tor part­ner­ships are essen­tial for align­ing resources, recruit­ing eli­gi­ble young peo­ple and con­nect­ing them with the ser­vices and sup­port they need to succeed.
• One-on-one learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, flex­i­ble sched­ul­ing, ​“pause” options and oth­er tar­get­ed sup­port can help keep young peo­ple engaged in ser­vices when fac­ing unex­pect­ed life challenges.
• The costs of pro­vid­ing LEAP ser­vices, includ­ing out­reach and fol­low-up activ­i­ties, range from $5,300 to $7,300 per par­tic­i­pant, depend­ing on pro­gram struc­ture and local context.

“We’re encour­aged by the ways LEAP sites are adapt­ing JAG and Back on Track to help youth meet their post­sec­ondary and employ­ment goals,” says Louisa Treskon, a research asso­ciate at MDRC and one of the report’s authors. ​“We want to con­tin­ue help­ing part­ners iden­ti­fy and pro­mote promis­ing strate­gies that gar­ner pos­i­tive out­comes and use evi­dence to spur broad­er take-up among oth­er youth-serv­ing systems.”

As LEAP enters its next phase, a new part­ner has joined the net­work: NMCAN in Albu­querque, New Mex­i­co. LEAP now oper­ates in 11 sites in 55 cities and nine states and includes a grow­ing net­work of fun­ders and four nation­al orga­ni­za­tions: Jobs for America’s Grad­u­ates, JFF, MDRC and School & Main Institute.

“Casey and our part­ners are eager to build on what we’ve learned to cul­ti­vate addi­tion­al rela­tion­ships with pub­lic sys­tems and posi­tion LEAP as a scal­able solu­tion for recon­nect­ing youth with edu­ca­tion­al and employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties,” says Cromwell. ​“In the years ahead, we will deep­en our focus on racial equi­ty and con­tin­ue help­ing young peo­ple expand their future oppor­tu­ni­ties while advo­cat­ing for — and meet­ing — their imme­di­ate needs.”

READ THE LEAP EVALUATION