Principles Underlying Youth Connections to the Labor Market

According to a recent publication prepared for Public/Private Ventures, a youth’s attachment to work will influence his or her likelihood of success in the labor market. It is critical that youth have the following:¹⁷

	At least one adult who has a strong interest in his or her success in the labor market.
	Awareness that the program has a strong and effective connection to employers.
	Placement in a paid position as soon as possible.
	Understanding of the initial job placement as a first step toward advancing career and income potential. Placement activities must be viewed as continuing efforts to establish a permanent attachment to work.
	Recognition of the need for educational skills and credentials and frequent opportunities to improve these skills and credentials.

Two additional strategies are also critical to helping court-involved youth connect with the labor market:

	Early and continuous involvement by employers in the lives of court-involved youth.
	Use of intermediaries to provide links to services and monitor the partnerships between providers of youth programs, youth, and employers.

Employer Involvement

A recent review of crime prevention programs funded by the U.S. Department of Justice concluded that any successful program aimed at increasing labor market participation in order to decrease crime “must connect a community or individuals to the world of legitimate work so that residents will have the proper incentives to acquire the necessary human capital needed for success in that world.”¹⁸

Employers are essential to creating an attachment between court-involved youth and the labor market. Employers can provide critical information about local and regional labor market needs and worker preparation requirements, and their strong involvement can also help court-involved youth connect with treatment plans, academic pursuits, vocational training, and the labor market. The use of employers as mentors, role models, and community advocates provides an alternative route to facility-community transition and reintegration for youth who are released from incarceration. Employers can help identify community service projects—both residential and community-based—that provide opportunities for restitution and community visibility. Employers may also involve youth in trade and business association activities; promote participation in treatment, education, or training programs offered by other employers; and inform youth of other employment opportunities.

Employer involvement in designing work-based learning curriculums and activities also ensures that the skills learned and practiced are those most likely to lead to employment. It also introduces employers to youth before the job search process begins. The Center for Employment Training (CET) in San Jose, CA, a nationally recognized job training program for at-risk youth and adults, is known for its cooperation with prospective employers to design training and place youth in jobs.¹⁹

CET provides a work-based training model with no entrance requirements for individuals 18 and older. The model integrates basic and human development skills and uses skills training as the context for learning. Employers determine the standards for training, audit training courses to determine their accuracy, and participate on technical advisory committees and industry advisory councils. Skills taught are closely tied to the labor needs of the immediate area (labor market surveys are performed to identify jobs that pay more than $7 per hour), instructors are hired directly from the industry on which the skills training is based, and participants do not receive certificates of completion until they are placed in a job. A Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) study of Federal job training programs found that CET graduates increased their earnings substantially—more than $6,700 over 4 years—compared with an average of $214 across all other programs studied.²⁰

Federal Bonding Program To help employers and youth overcome barriers to participation in the workforce, DOL supports a Federal Bonding Program (FBP) that employers hiring court-involved youth can use to meet bonding requirements. FBP makes fidelity bonds available to help ex-offenders and other high-risk individuals obtain employment. A fidelity bond is a business insurance policy that protects the employer in case of any loss of money or property due to employee dishonesty. It insures the employer for any type of stealing by theft, forgery, larceny, or embezzlement. It does not cover liability because of poor workmanship, job injuries, or work accidents. Employers can purchase such bonds commercially, but these commercial bonds typically exclude anyone who has already committed a fraudulent or dishonest act. Bonds from this program are given to the employer free of charge to serve as an incentive to the company to hire a job applicant who is an ex-offender or has some other risk factor in his or her background. In most cities, all State Employment Service local offices (also called State Job Service or One-Stop Centers) are certified to issue these bonds. Other agencies and programs can also purchase these bonds to help place their clients or enrollees. A $5,000 bond coverage is typically issued, but larger bond amounts are also available. To date, about 40,000 individuals have been bonded by this program, and 99 percent have proved to be honest employees. Bonds can be purchased by agencies and programs in packages of 25 or more, at an average cost of less than $100 per bond.1 1 For more information, contact Ron Ruben in care of the McLaughlin Company at 1–800–BOND–JOB.

Intermediaries

Effectively bridging juvenile justice workforce preparation programs and the labor market requires the assistance of community-based organizations, nonprofit groups, and job brokers that can serve as intermediaries. These “intermediaries” can provide a consistent point of contact between the justice system and employers and can ensure the successful community reintegration of court-involved youth. Intermediaries can help youth connect with employers and community services in the location of release or jurisdictional control, and they can provide the level of monitoring required during the early stages of employment and transition. Successful intermediaries have credibility with the businesses in their communities, possess knowledge of justice system requirements, serve as advocates for the youth and employers, and facilitate communication among aftercare program services, employers, and youth. Intermediaries can also coordinate contact by a variety of initiatives, such as School-to-Work, Welfare-to-Work, summer jobs, and aftercare services; provide continual support while youth secure private sector employment; provide a coordinated central resource/case management function; and deliver a consistent message to employers.

Some programs designate entities and/or individuals as intermediaries to create and maintain the organizational relationships and interpersonal dialogs that are essential for high-quality programs. Intermediaries are particularly important because private sector companies, schools, other youth service organizations, and juvenile justice agencies often know little about one another when they begin working together because of various job requirements. An intermediary, who is familiar with different organizational cultures and operational procedures and who has the trust of both the employer and the youth, can help establish common understandings, resolve misunderstandings, and mediate performance problems. Because an intermediary is often instrumental in helping youth retain employment and perform job responsibilities adequately, the use of intermediaries may increase the likelihood that court-involved youth will establish acceptable patterns of work behavior.

A good example of an intermediary is Teen Supreme, a jointly funded effort of the U.S. Departments of Labor and Justice that supports the startup and operation of “Career Prep” programs at 40 Boys & Girls Clubs throughout the country. Additional funds provided by the Taco Bell Foundation allow the clubs to establish and operate Teen Supreme Centers. These centers provide job readiness training and career guidance to youth residing in the target communities. The centers also provide healthy socialization outlets.

United Auto Workers/General Motors Manufacturing Technology Partnership The United Auto Workers (UAW)/General Motors Manufacturing Technology Partnership (MTP) program in Flint, MI, is a 2-year school-to-career transition program whose purpose is to help prepare selected high school students for careers in the skilled trades. Five full-time UAW journey persons in skilled trades act as mentors for seven students participating in the program. Each mentor introduces students to the manufacturing process. Mentors also develop projects that incorporate the reading and math skills necessary to pass the entry-level test for the skilled trade’s apprenticeship. In identifying mentors, MTP looks for individuals who can develop close relationships with students, exhibit commitment and friendship, and share real job knowledge and experience with the students. Program participants were more likely to be employed at higher wages ($9.79 per hour, compared with $5.59 per hour), to have higher grade point averages and similar or higher class ranks, to earn higher levels of vocational credits and more math and science credits, and to have higher average postsecondary education attendance rates than nonparticipants.1 1 K. Hollenbeck, Evaluation of the United Auto Workers/General Motors Technology Partnership, Kalamazoo, MI: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 1996.

Principles To Improve Youth Programs

To foster understanding between policymakers and program personnel involved in employment and training of youth and those who work with juvenile offenders, the Task Force identified demonstrated and promising program models for general, at-risk, and court-involved youth populations. While most of the principles and programs referenced below are designed for working with economically disadvantaged and at-risk populations, they may also be applicable to court-involved youth. Court-involved youth, especially those involved in early intervention, aftercare, and community corrections components of the juvenile justice system, may be served through the programs described. The principles of effective practices for court-involved youth are consistent with the basic principles of effective youth programming for general and at-risk youth populations.

Mentoring Big Brothers Big Sisters has demonstrated the effectiveness of mentoring in building protective factors in young people. Another early intervention program that relies heavily on a mentoring component is the Mentor Plus program operated by the Oakland County Youth Assistance Volunteer Program. At an early stage of their involvement with the juvenile court, youth who are deemed appropriate for the program are assigned to the Mentor Plus program as an alternative to placement by the State juvenile justice agency. In this program, the youth are paired with volunteer mentors with whom they meet regularly. Together, they participate in prosocial activities, some of which are planned by the program and others by the youth and mentors. This program has been rigorously researched and found to be effective in limiting the involvement of mentored youth in subsequent delinquent activity. Public/Private Ventures (P/PV) performed an 18-month experimental evaluation of local Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies in Columbus, OH; Houston, TX; Minneapolis, MN; Philadelphia, PA; Phoenix, AZ; Rochester, NY; San Antonio, TX; and Wichita, KS.1 Youth were randomly assigned to the experimental group, which was immediately eligible for mentoring, or the control group, which was placed on a waiting list. Youth who worked with mentors were 46 percent less likely than those on the waiting list to initiate drug use and 27 percent less likely to initiate alcohol use during the study period. Mentored youth were one-third less likely to hit someone, skipped half as many days of school and performed better at school, and reported better relationships with their parents and peers than youth in the control group.2 1 For more information on the evaluation, see J.P. Tierney and J. Grossman, Making a Difference: An Impact Study, Philadelphia, PA: Public/Private Ventures, 1995. 2 For more information on mentoring programs, see J.B. Grossman and E.M. Garry, Mentoring—A Proven Delinquency Prevention Strategy, Bulletin, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1997.

Specific strategies, techniques, methods, and approaches, including behavioral change incentives, have been used by effective programs implemented by a variety of organizations to achieve positive outcomes for youth. Together, these organizations²¹ share a vision of a seamless system where youth develop skills, gain experience, and receive the services and support they need to be successful—whether in work, in postsecondary school, or in the community—after they leave high school. Promising employment, training, and educational initiatives combine youth development principles and activities to provide varied and ongoing opportunities for young people to grow, mature, and successfully connect to the world of work and/or higher education. In a high-quality program, youth:

	Feel connected to caring adults.
	Receive positive, consistent, and constructive support.
	Develop a sense of group membership.
	Cooperate with family and peers.
	Are promoted as resources.
	Build a sense of responsibility and leadership skills.
	Develop a sense of who they are.
	Engage in a range of age- and stage-appropriate activities.
	Have access to support services over time.

The best delinquency prevention programs use a variety of effective approaches, including mentoring, afterschool support, employment and training, and residential, School-to-Work, and college access services. The following paragraphs provide fuller descriptions of some general youth programs that incorporate mentoring, services, work-based learning, and employer involvement and may be adaptable for or directly applicable to court-involved youth.

Residential-Based Community Service Activities The Indiana State Correctional System provides funding for Youth as Resources (YAR), a community service model, at each of its facilities and includes YAR principles in all its staff training, with obvious benefits for prevention and early intervention. In Indianapolis, IN, YAR programs have been in correctional facilities since 1987. Inmates in these facilities serve on boards of directors or apply to such boards for funding for their community service projects. Activities have included producing a play about teen parenthood, tutoring, and other infacility projects.

Private-Sector Participation in Residential Facilities The Free Venture Program1 is operated by the California Youth Authority. The program model entails a business partnership between the State and a private industry in which court-involved youth at the residential facility are hired to produce goods and/or to provide services that are sold on the open market.2 The Free Venture Program is not a prison industry, and the residential facility is not responsible for profits or losses. The work performed by the youthful offenders includes telemarketing, spot welding, sheet metal fabrication, power sewing, drafting, microfilming, assembly, packaging, data entry, and wordprocessing. One of the program’s ventures with TWA has operated since 1986. TWA has hired more than 400 youthful offenders as contingent airlines reservations agents at the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility. More than 25 youthful offenders have continued their employment with TWA upon their release from the institution. Evaluation findings for this program (1989) include lower risk of recidivism than the general prison population based on age, commitment offense, and reading ability.3 1 See appendix H for contact information. 2 National Office for Social Responsibility, Final Report, Volume III, 1993. 3 B. Krisberg and G. Pearce, Employment-Based Youth Violence Prevention, San Francisco, CA: National Council on Crime and Delinquency, 1996.

Academic and Work-Related Skills

Employment and training programs for court-involved youth should incorporate the basic principles of youth development. These programs work even better if their basic design provides long-term comprehensive services, forms a continuum of activities, and provides the academic skills that are necessary for youth to become productive, self-sufficient, and law-abiding. One exemplary program that meets these criteria is the Quantum Opportunities Project (QOP), a year-round, multiyear comprehensive program for disadvantaged youth (defined as youth in families receiving food stamps and public assistance) launched in five communities in 1989.²² QOP was operated by two different community-based organizations. Twenty-five disadvantaged students in each community were randomly selected to enter the program beginning in the ninth grade and continuing through 4 years of high school. QOP focused on educational activities (tutoring, homework assistance, computer-assisted instruction) and developmental activities (building life and family skills and planning for postsecondary education and jobs). Community service was also stressed. Community agencies provided afterschool service on their premises and, in some cases, in school settings (where the schools provided time and space).²³ Results from the pilot test showed that, compared with the control group, QOP participants were less likely to be arrested as juveniles; more likely to have graduated from high school, to be enrolled in higher education or training, and to plan 4 years of college; and less likely to become teen parents.²⁴

The National Association of Service and Conservation Corps Out-of-school programs often provide a caring community where young people can feel comfortable gaining the skills they missed by leaving school. Youth Service and Conservation Corps involve youth “crews” led by a youth and an adult that become familylike units during their stay in the Corps. The National Association of Service and Conservation Corps1 supports State and local youth service and conservation corps that involve young people from different backgrounds in innovative efforts to meet community needs. Funded projects must engage youth and young adults, who in turn receive job and skill training, living allowances, and scholarships. More than 20,000 youth in 32 States are enrolled in Youth Service and Conservation Corps programs. The National Association of Service and Conservation Corps organizes out-of-school youth, ages 18 to 25, into crews under the direction of adult staff to carry out community service projects, usually in the environmental and human services. Corps activities are intended to provide long-term benefits to the public, instill a work ethic and sense of public service in participants, and offer substantial social benefit by meeting human, educational, or environmental needs (particularly needs related to poverty) in the community where the volunteer service is performed. Participating in service activities for The National Association of Service and Conservation Corps about 32 hours per week and receiving a mix of services for about 8 additional hours per week, youth engage in temporary, paid, productive, full-time work that benefits both youth and their communities. Working in crews, Corps members may renovate housing, assist human service agencies, or support park and forestry preservation. Many Corps members also receive a GED or go to college. There are 91 year-round programs in 197 sites, serving 22,000 youth annually. Corps members are more likely to work for pay (99 percent compared with 73 percent), more likely to work more hours per year (2,030 compared with 1,465), and less likely to be arrested (12 percent compared with 17 percent) than non-Corps members. African American Corps members were more likely to earn an associate’s degree (4 percent compared with 0 percent) and more likely to have changes in educational aspirations (66 percent compared with 40 percent), and Hispanic male Corps members worked more hours per year (2,300 compared with 1,450) and received more promotions (33 percent compared with 19 percent) than their non-Corps member peers.2 1 See appendix H for contact information. 2 J. Jastrzab, J. Masker, J. Blomquist, and L. Orr, Evaluation of National and Community Service Programs Impacts of Service: Final Report on the Evaluation of American Conservation and Youth Service Corps, Cambridge, MA: Abt Associates, 1996.

Age and Development

Programs should also be age-appropriate to reflect a youth’s development. One program that incorporates this principle is Work Appreciation for Youth (WAY),²⁵ operated by the Children’s Village in Dobbs Ferry, NY. Differences in age, capability, and development are accommodated through a sequenced program; youth move from level to level when they are ready and able. Once young people trust the staff and the setting and feel they are valued and offered necessary challenges, guidance, and services, they are ready to participate in the actual activities of a program. Periodic performance evaluations at worksites and in living areas, assessments by counselors and other Children’s Village staff, and the interests of youth determine whether youth can move up the WAY ladder, from levels I and II to levels III and IV. By age 21, 51 percent of WAY participants who had finished high school or an equivalent were in college or had attended college; 80 percent were high school graduates, GED recipients, or enrolled in a GED program; and only 9 percent had dropped out of school. Employment over a 5-year period ranged from 65 percent to 89 percent per year, and 68 percent had worked at least 4 of the 5 years.²⁶

Long-Term Followup

Programs are more likely to be effective if participants have long-term monitoring and support followup for 6 months to several years after they find jobs or go on to postsecondary education or training. In particular, long-term employment retention and gains in earnings occur when programs support participants through their first jobs and on to more advanced jobs up a career ladder. Support Training Results in Valuable Employment (STRIVE),²⁷ an employment and training program for youth and adults that was started in New York, NY, provides 2 years of followup services and support after participants are placed in jobs. As a result, an average of 82 percent of all participants were employed for at least 2 years.²⁸

Job Readiness/Work Experience Program The Job Readiness/Work Experience Program (Jobs Program) is jointly operated by the Missouri Department of Youth Services (DYS) and the State Department of Economic Development (DED) through an interagency agreement. Begun in 1995, the Jobs Program sets aside work experience slots for juvenile offenders who are in residential treatment facilities or in aftercare. The agreement allows DYS to transfer funds to DED and county-level economic development agencies to create and target job training for DYS youth. The amount allocated for fiscal year 2000 is $678,335 for the equivalent of one hundred 1,040-hour-per-year employment program slots, an increase from the 80 slots funded in previous years. Youth find positions with not-for-profit organizations and government agencies, including residential facilities. Youth are paid through the local workforce development administrative entity. During fiscal year 1999, 667 youth accessed the Jobs Program. Outcomes for fiscal year 1998 indicate that 84 percent of youth who participated had successful outcomes, including returning to school full-time, obtaining a GED, obtaining employment, and/or entering further education or training. Only youth who have not been recommitted, had their probation status revoked, been dismissed, or quit a Jobs Program job are considered successful.1 1 Outcome information was provided by DYS personnel on November 2, 1999.

Effective Implementation

Well-thought-out programs are more likely to be effective. This includes planning for ample startup time, sufficient and timely resources, clear communication of program goals, and thorough staff training.

Sometimes established programs with more secure resources and greater experience have shown better results than new programs. Larger programs also can have an economy of scale that is unavailable to smaller initiatives. It is also important to follow, with a high degree of fidelity, a proven model.

Work-Based Learning Authorized by the Housing and Community Development Act of 1992, YouthBuild USA1 provides economically disadvantaged youth with concrete skills through a training program that includes construction work on community rehabilitation projects and that helps them attain GED’s or high school diplomas through classroom training in an alternative high school. YouthBuild awards planning and implementation grants for new construction to provide disadvantaged youth with opportunities for employment, education, leadership development, and training in the construction or rehabilitation of low-income residential housing. Modeled after 14 existing programs across the country, YouthBuild’s philosophy is based on peer support, education and training, and job opportunities. The program allows young people to gain respect from their families and neighbors by involving them in an immediate, visible role in rebuilding the community. The staff are trained to involve youth in significant decisions. The YouthBuild program prepares young people who have dropped out of school for careers in construction by employing them as trainees in the actual rehabilitation of a vacant, usually city-owned, building. During this time, the young people alternate offsite weeks of academic and job skills training and counseling with onsite vocational education and construction. Youth trainees are expected to participate in the program full-time, in a group that starts and graduates together in 10 to 14 months, although some participants may be placed in jobs or colleges before the end of the program cycle if appropriate. The program serves mostly minority males, 65 percent of whom have had prior contact with the criminal justice system and 33 percent of whom have been convicted and incarcerated for felonies. Between 1994 and 1996, 100 YouthBuild programs were established through funding from HUD. Average GED achievement of YouthBuild participants in 1996 was 33 percent of all enrollees and 50 percent of all graduates. Sixty-nine percent of the participants achieved favorable outcomes (positive terminations); YouthBuild participants had an average attendance rate of 85 percent; a higher percentage of YouthBuild participants earned GED’s than participants in other comparable programs (33 percent compared with 20 percent); 38 percent were employed full- or part-time with school/ training; and 66 percent of second-year participants who were employed entered construction-related jobs with an average wage of $7.60 per hour.2 1 See appendix H for contact information. 2 R. Ferguson and P. Clay, YouthBuild in Developmental Perspective: A Formative Evaluation of the YouthBuild Demonstration Project, Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1996.

Trust and Effective Adult Support

Programs that affect the personal attitudes and development of young people are particularly important. When they first enter a school classroom, alternative school, job-training, or other special program, youth (especially court-involved youth) want the presence of a caring adult. The adult should be a teacher, mentor, or support person who understands and cares about youth, provides youth with respect and significant time and attention, and shows that he or she is “in it for the long haul.” This individual should receive extensive training in working effectively and compassionately with youth. Big Brothers Big Sisters of America²⁹ has demonstrated proven and effective practices to introduce carefully screened and well-trained caring adults into the lives of youth with positive results. Caring adults are also a vital part of Career Academies, DOL’s Summer Youth Employment Program, Talent Development High School, Project Redirection, STRIVE, YouthBuild, Communities In Schools, Quantum Opportunities Project, Higher Ground, I Have A Dream, Maryland’s Tomorrow, Sponsor-A-Scholar, and numerous other youth programs.

Adults need to demonstrate their care by establishing high expectations, offering guidance, and instilling personal responsibility and accountability in youth. They should also try to address the various issues youth face in their lives. For example, many programs have found that by providing necessary services such as childcare and transportation to youth who could not otherwise participate in the program’s offerings, they can build youth trust in the program.

Fresh Start Fresh Start1 is a program of the Living Classrooms Foundation. It provides hands-on education and job training for youth ages 16 to 20 who are hard to serve and from diverse backgrounds. The majority of youth enrolled are African American and have not completed high school. They are economically disadvantaged and have a history of serious problems, including sexual, physical, and/or emotional abuse. Most have been victims of violent crimes, and nearly all have been arrested more than once. The program provides project-based education that teaches academic skills and knowledge through practical applications and real-work projects. Fresh Start assists youth with goal setting and preparation for careers and further education. Its key objectives are career development, cooperative learning, community service, self-esteem building, and fostering multicultural exchange. Fresh Start uses maritime settings to provide experiential learning opportunities. During this 9-month program, youth repair boats and engines, develop carpentry and woodworking skills, work in a real marina, and serve as crew members aboard Living Classrooms Foundation vessels. The classroom is located at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, MD, on the 2-acre Living Classrooms Maritime Institute site. The classroom is sponsored by Baltimore and the State of Maryland. The last 2 months of the program are designed to help youth make the transition into internships and jobs while they are benefiting from program support. Forty-six percent of the graduates pursue further education. A full-time counselor tracks each graduate for 3 years with assistance from the Maryland Department of Juvenile Justice. Of the 46 students served by Fresh Start in program year 1998, 67 percent entered full-time employment, 25 percent continued their education, 93 percent attended program sessions, 8 percent were rearrested, and none were incarcerated.2 1 See appendix H for contact information. 2 Outcome information was provided by Fresh Start staff on November 4, 1999.

Small, Familylike Settings and Positive Peer Relationships

Programs should develop small, familylike settings. Positive peer relationships are also very important to successful youth programs. The influence of peers and the consequences of negative peer behavior are strongly linked to delinquent actions. Youth seek the support and approval of peers, and many program participants must learn to replace patterns of interaction that result in negative consequences with those that benefit them, their families, and their communities. Career Academies and the Talent Development High School³⁰ in Baltimore, MD, both use schools-within-schools to foster better connections between young people and caring adults, thus creating a more comfortable and accessible school community. QOP also provides a familylike group that young people become a part of for 4 years.

Work-Based Learning

The authenticity of the instruction and the program is enhanced in the eyes of young people if they feel that participation will actually lead to a career (before or after additional formal education). Work-based learning makes youth perceive instruction as more relevant, and it demonstrates that the skills being learned can be used in an actual workplace. Working can also provide the support, guidance, and structure that come from exposure to caring adults. In the most effective programs, youth consider their work worthwhile and of high quality. Without that connection, any work program is unlikely to succeed in a substantial way.³¹

The Center for Employment Training The Center for Employment Training (CET)1 is a private, nonprofit education and training program headquartered in San Jose, CA. CET currently operates a total of 28 programs in California, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, and Texas, including 17 replication sites funded by the U.S. Department of Labor. Earlier evaluations conducted by the Manpower Development Research Center (MDRC) of New York, NY, and Mathematica Policy Research of Washington, DC, indicate that the program produced substantial increases in earnings in a short time even for participants without high school diplomas or GED’s. CET’s replication is currently being evaluated by MDRC. Results are expected to be published in 2000. Unlike many employment and training programs that require skills assessments and remedial instruction before providing job training or placement, CET gives participants who do not possess high school diplomas or GED’s access to job-specific training right away. Training sites are modeled after actual work environments. If necessary, academic instruction is provided in conjunction with the work-related skills training. CET also employs an open-entry, open-exit approach so that participants are placed in jobs when they believe they are ready. CET helps participants find jobs and, if they are laid off, helps them find other jobs or retrains them in different occupations. Skills training and job placement services are developed in close coordination with employers based on immediate local labor demands. Students participate 35 to 40 hours per week for approximately 6 months. CET served 1,063 youth ages 17 to 21 between 1997 and 1998. CET youth had a job placement rate of 72 percent; of these youth, 87 percent entered training-related jobs. The average pretraining annual wage was $4,214, and the average posttraining wage was $15,808. 2 1 See appendix H for contact information. 2 Data were provided by the Regional Director at the San Jose CET on November 2, 1999. These statistics are for sites nationwide.

Innovative instruction that uses real-world examples provides the authenticity youth seek in a program. Hands-on instruction, project-based learning, service-learning, school-to-careers, and other methods that relate academic learning to real life are particularly successful. Career Academies are schools within schools in which students take several classes together with the same group of teachers. Each Career Academy focuses on a career theme such as finance, travel and tourism, or public service.³² Students engage in 2 to 4 years of career theme-focused course work combined with paid summer work experience.³³ Talent Development is a Career Academy model that targets at-risk, inner-city youth in Baltimore, MD. The model is based on research on student motivation and teacher commitment.³⁴ In this program, ninth grade attendance improved by 9.4 percentage points; schoolwide attendance increased 6.1 percentage points; ninth grade promotion increased from 47.3 to 69.1 percent; and the teachers’ perception of the school changed dramatically.

Students in Boston’s Project ProTech, a school-to-careers program, are grouped together for two to three of their high school courses and study a modified curriculum that reinforces the concepts and skills learned at hospital worksites.³⁵ ProTech uses youth apprenticeship as a vehicle for engaging students in several career cluster areas: allied health, finance, utilities and telecommunications, environmental services, and business services. The year after graduating, 87 percent of program participants were working, 78 percent were pursuing postsecondary education, and 52 percent were combining work and school. Program graduates were more likely than their peers to work, to earn higher mean wages over time, and to complete a postsecondary certificate or degree.³⁶

Programs for Court-Involved Youth

A number of promising program models have been operated through the juvenile justice system, the employment and training system, and youth service programs. Some programs, particularly residential treatment programs for court-involved youth, are supported with funds from multiple sources, including the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) and the juvenile justice system. The Intensive Aftercare Program (IAP) is an OJJDP initiative that was designed and piloted by David Altschuler and Troy Armstrong.³⁷ Elements of these program models can be found in some of the exemplary programs presented throughout this chapter.

Integrated Work-Based Learning and Community Services Model The Caledonia Community Work Camp,1 located in St. Johnsbury, VT, opened in 1994. The camp is part of a pilot State corrections program costing $9 million less to construct than a medium-security facility. The work camp approach involves 72 nonviolent youthful offenders in gardening, historic preservation, and community service. Participants work in crews with supervisors and other employees whose skills include carpentry, painting, and Sheetrock™ masonry. Participants tend the camp’s garden, participate in educational programs, learn trades, and keep journals. A youth’s sentence is reduced by 1 day for each day served at the camp. Once participants have progressed through established levels and have demonstrated compliance with disciplinary standards, they qualify for work in the community. Community service/restitution projects have included building bookshelves for a library, improving a Little League field, and repainting a church. Participants provided 80,000 hours of work valued at an estimated $365,000 (based on minimum wage) in 35 towns during the camp’s first 18 months. In 1995, 74 percent of the participants completed the program. 1 See appendix H for contact information.

The discussion below provides a summary of exemplary programs, categorizing them broadly according to three service delivery components: residential, community corrections, and aftercare programs. For the purposes of this discussion, community corrections programs are considered part of aftercare and are not listed separately.

Entrepreneurship The Alliance House, a small residential facility in Stoneham, MA, operated by the Northeastern Family Institute, has established a business—Alliance All Purpose.1 This facility uses an entrepreneurial model in which both current and former program participants own and operate a business that provides services from housework to hauling. Alliance All Purpose teaches youth to transform labor-intensive, unskilled work into a skilled business. Led by a board of directors comprising three current and two former residents, the company markets its services to the local community. It negotiates contracts with its customers that specify the scope of work to be performed, the timeframe for its completion, and the price to be charged. In developing the fee for each service, the youth include the fee paid to juvenile justice staff who provide the State-mandated supervision that occurs outside of their regular working hours. This payment mechanism relieves the Alliance House program of the supervisory costs that often preclude or severely curtail offsite employment of residential youth. 1 See appendix H for contact information.

Community-Based Work Experiences The Thomas O’Farrell Youth Center1 in Marriottsville, MD, has operated community work programs for many years. This small residential program has identified part-time jobs in the surrounding community for a select number of youth residents deemed ready for this challenge. Past placements have included jobs at the local McDonald’s restaurant and summer jobs at a nearby hospital. Currently, three youth are working 1 day a week with the maintenance department of a nearby town and gaining a wide variety of work experience. Recently, the center began experimenting with an offsite job-shadowing program. Appropriate youth identify and research an employment field of interest, prepare a list of questions to be answered during the half-day of job shadowing, and then complete an essay about the experience that is cataloged for reference by future residents. So far, youth have explored the real estate, barbering, and graphic design fields. The Maryland Department of Juvenile Justice has approved the program to run a seven-bed independent living house for youth ages 16 1 /2 to 18 who are enrolled in GED programs and engaged in work activities. The Thomas O’Farrell Youth Center is currently serving 45 youth, of whom 25 are special education students and 14 are diagnosed as having an emotional disability. The majority of youth in the program return to school; 70 earned GED’s between January 1994 and October 1999, and 8 have enrolled in college in the past 8 years. Between June 1997 and December 1998, the average academic gains for program participants were 1.3 years for mathematics, 0.6 years for spelling, and 1.2 years for reading. Program participants have a 30-percent recidivism rate. 1 See appendix H for contact information.

Residential Programs

Youth in residential facilities face numerous barriers to employment, including deficiencies in education and interpersonal skills, geographic isolation, public safety and risk factors, and employer perceptions (see “Issues Related to Residential Programs”). Notwithstanding the barriers, there are effective strategies for preparing residential youth for the workplace and providing them with quality employment and training experiences. These strategies are summarized below.

	Most residential facilities operate their own education and counseling programs.38 Making these programs as effective as possible will help the youth develop the basic skills discussed in earlier sections of this Report.
	Residential facilities can develop an innovative sequence of onsite jobs and/or work-based learning activities through which youth can progress as they develop the requisite maturity and skills. Appropriate job opportunities can be found in the daily operations of all residential facilities. For example, beginning jobs could include custodial chores such as maintaining the campus grounds, cleaning the dorms, and serving meals. Higher level jobs could include maintaining landscaping equipment, improving the appearance of buildings and grounds, making minor repairs to broken furniture and/or equipment, and helping with daily food preparation. All of these activities can create a sheltered work experience for residents that will:   Teach youth how to be productive. Provide the background for successful private sector work in the community. Demonstrate youth competencies to prospective off-campus employers.
	Juvenile justice administrators can bring outside employment and training services and private sector jobs into the residential facility. This strategy increases job training and employment opportunities for youth within the shelter of the residential setting, and introduces court-involved youth to private employers.
	Juvenile justice administrators may permit resident youth to leave the facility’s campus during the day to receive employment and training services, to perform community service, or to work in paid part-time, private sector jobs. The youth who participate in these offsite opportunities will be those who have made significant rehabilitative progress and have demonstrated their capacity to meet the challenges presented by these opportunities. This strategy fulfills the intent of the balanced and restorative justice program model to have juvenile offenders develop workplace competencies while either performing community service or earning income that would go toward restitution to crime victims.39

In spite of the obvious challenges, there is evidence of successful and promising approaches that improve access by court-involved youth to the labor market.

Integrated Facility-Based and Community-Based Model #1 The Gulf Coast Trades Center1 (GCTC) in New Waverly, TX, a 168-bed residential program, primarily serves adjudicated youth ages 16 to 18.1 This program increases the social and economic independence of the residents through an intensive residential program focusing on job training and community-based work experience. Services include training in social skills, work attitudes, and job-specific skills; GED preparation; substance abuse education; job referral; driver’s education; discharge planning; and aftercare. Most participants at the Center are required to provide 200 hours of community service as part of the learning experience and to build leadership skills. Students are placed with a large variety of local nonprofit organizations in paid work experiences. Sixty-five percent of GCTC participants earned GED’s, and 90 percent found employment—62 percent in trade-related jobs, with an average starting wage of $7.50 per hour. GCTC reported a 22-percent recidivism rate over a 12-month period for youth served by its contracted parole services (provided by GCTC for 132 counties statewide), and 90 percent of those confined to the facility did not return after release. GCTC has served more than 18,000 youth during its 28 years of operation and is in the first year of operation of a charter school program.2 1 See appendix H for contact information. 2 Outcome information was provided by the National Youth Employment Coalition—PEPNet-’99—and GCTC personnel on November 2, 1999.

Integrated Facility-Based and Community-Based Model #2 The Home Builders Institute (HBI), the educational arm of the National Association of Home Builders, has operated the Community Restitution and Apprenticeship Focused Training (Project CRAFT) program for juvenile offenders in five States: Florida, Maryland, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas.1 Project CRAFT offers an intensive preapprenticeship program that integrates comprehensive case management, community service, and a blended program of academic and vocational skills training to help court-involved youth enter residential and light commercial construction trade-related jobs. HBI uses an industry-validated curriculum, Pre-Apprenticeship Certification Training (PACT), and receives extensive support from local home builders associations (HBA’s) in its areas of operation. Based on the Job Corps model of long-term intervention and other successful HBI targeted-training programs for homeless individuals and adult offenders, Project CRAFT uses a comprehensive approach to training juvenile offenders in residential construction through community service projects. Project CRAFT incorporates the key components of the IAP model 2 and the balanced and restorative justice model.3 Using a combination of documented juvenile justice, youth employment, and youth development principles, Project CRAFT adds restitution as a component of student skills building and accountability. Project CRAFT provides 6 months of vocational training, intensive case management followup for 6 months, long-term followup for up to 3 years, extensive employer involvement, and systems-level collaboration. Youth are required to be coenrolled in a high school diploma or GED program and substance abuse treatment during the preapprenticeship phase. Students also receive intensive counseling and treatment services, making Project CRAFT a long-term intervention similar to Job Corps. The home-building industry supports Project CRAFT by offering PACT, hiring youth who have completed the program, serving as mentors for Project CRAFT participants and as guest speakers, and providing support through in-kind contributions. Community service projects are conducted in conjunction with local HBA’s, Habitat for Humanity, housing authorities, and local public and private community agencies. HBI has trained nearly 400 juvenile offenders and placed 94 percent of graduates since 1994. Current projections indicate the Project CRAFT program will exceed its goals in numbers of youth who enroll, complete the program, and are placed in unsubsidized jobs or apprenticeships. Within 1 week after graduating from the program or being released from the facility, all of the students were employed, with 60 percent still employed after 3 months. Project CRAFT can be implemented as a prevention or intervention program. Options include operating Project CRAFT as an inhouse training program with community-based services or day treatment on facility grounds, an alternative or vocational school, a collaborative effort with community agencies, an alternative to incarceration, or a program that targets at-risk or runaway youth. HBI provides technical assistance to Project CRAFT programs and other public and private agencies interested in starting a program. The curriculum used to train Project CRAFT students is certified in North Dakota by the State Board of Education, and HBI hopes to continue the certification process in other States. In Florida, Project CRAFT is certified as a second-chance school. HBI continues to seek approval and certifications for its curriculums in the State and local systems in which it operates. Project CRAFT was independently evaluated over a 4-year period by Resource Development Group, Inc. The evaluators documented the following outcomes for graduates of the program in the three original demonstration sites in Maryland, North Dakota, and Tennessee:4 By September 1998, 94 of 140 Project CRAFT graduates had jobs in the home-building industry, 35 had jobs in other occupations or trades, and 55 had entered apprenticeships. The median starting hourly wage for Project CRAFT participants was $6, compared with the national median hourly wage of $4.74 for youth. The median hourly wage at project completion was $7.50, compared with $6.58, the national median wage for all youth ages 24 and younger during the same reporting year. The cumulative recidivism rate for graduates of Project CRAFT was 26 percent, compared with the national rate of 70 percent. Project CRAFT’s followup for juvenile offenders after release and community placement helps juvenile offenders reintegrate into the community. 1 See appendix H for contact information. 2 D.M. Altschuler and T.L. Armstrong, Intensive Aftercare for High Risk Juveniles: A Community Care Model, Summary, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1994. 3 G. Bazemore and M.S. Umbreit, Balanced and Restorative Justice for Juveniles, Summary, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1995; G. Bazemore, What’s “new” about the balanced approach?, Juvenile and Family Court Judges Journal 48(1):1–19, 1997. 4 Outcome information is adapted from M.E. Kiss, CRAFT Final Report: 1994–1998, Bowie, MD: Resource Development Group, Inc., 1999; and R. Hamilton and K. McKinney, Job Training for Juveniles: Project CRAFT, Fact Sheet, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1999.

Two initiatives that exemplify successful collaboration between the labor market and juvenile justice system require mention here. The California Youth Authority’s Free Venture program illustrates how local economic development initiatives can be linked to work preparation and employment programs for court-involved youth. Free Venture operates as a cooperative partnership of local economic development agencies, employers, and the juvenile justice system. Tax credits, reduced costs for rented space, and access to trained workers are provided to support work opportunities for residential youth by encouraging employers to establish a base of operations/production within the correctional facility.

In another collaborative initiative, Oregon’s Labor Market Information System joined the juvenile justice system in identifying key employment trends within the State and its various regions. This information is being used to develop worker preparation programs in Oregon’s youth facilities. Employers may join vocational education advisory committees and help design and implement training programs that respond to the labor market. Participating employers are asked for their support to ensure that jobs will be available when youth complete the program and return to the community.

Aftercare Programs

Job training and employment for court-involved youth in the aftercare phase of their treatment tend to be most effective when youth:

	Are in a community setting in which their movement is much less restricted than in a residential facility, if not totally unrestricted. In such settings, the logistical problems discussed under Residential Programs are greatly reduced.
	Are typically of legal working age, so that paid employment experiences are possible.
	Have had the benefit of earlier services—particularly counseling services—that have improved interpersonal skills and the ability to deal with frustrations, anger, and stress.

Unfortunately, relatively few designated support services follow the released youth from the residential environment back to the home community.⁴⁰ Therefore, developing an array of essential services, including employment and training services, to support youth in the final stages of rehabilitation is often very difficult, if not impossible. In theory, this task is the ongoing responsibility of the entire juvenile justice system from the time the youth first becomes involved. However, this responsibility often falls to the aftercare case manager as a juvenile is exiting the justice system, and few resources are dedicated to this crucial phase. The most effective aftercare job training and employment programs typically involve formal partnerships between the juvenile justice system and other institutions or organizations. Two effective programs, run by the Missouri Department of Youth Services and the Living Classrooms Foundation, are described in sidebars, respectively.

Some programs try to place court-involved youth in residential employment and training programs that serve at-risk youth after they leave residential facilities. These programs typically provide the court-involved youth with a moderately structured environment in which to hone employment skills that will enhance their ability to gain and maintain a substantial job. Job Corps is one such program.

Acknowledging obstacles and previous failures to universally address the labor market challenges of court-involved youth is a first step toward improving systems and programs. Although there are numerous examples of successful programs that integrate traditional and nontraditional approaches to workforce preparation, and although there are a number of programs that serve at-risk youth, these programs need to be expanded and brought to scale to assist the large numbers of court-involved youth in this country and to ensure their return to a law-abiding and productive life. Collaboration between juvenile justice, workforce development, education, and social service agencies and employers can greatly enhance this process.