Stakeholder Resource
Stable employment helps build a solid foundation for youth as they enter adulthood. Some youth involved in the justice system—especially for serious offenses—may face increased barriers to finding and securing employment. This blogpost features the results from a national scan of workforce programs that identify strategies that may help overcome these challenges. The research identifies common features of quality community-based workforce development programs that serve youth and young adults with criminal or juvenile records.
June, 2022
Stakeholder Resource
This article outlines lessons learned from a study that looked at workforce development programs serving 16 to 24-year-olds that were convicted, adjudicated of, or charged with serious crimes in the juvenile or criminal justice system.
June, 2022
Podcast
This podcast highlights the SOAR Program at Tri-County OIC, which is affiliated with the Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania region. SOAR is a reentry program for young adults (ages 18 to 24) who have been involved in the criminal justice system. The comprehensive program offers customized academic training, vocational training, intense case management, and stackable/portable credentials training. Part of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Voice of Experience video series, the podcast is presented by SOAR Project Manager Christina Johnson.
September, 2021
Stakeholder Resource
Supportive services are one of 14 program elements of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) youth program that enable individuals to participate in WIOA activities. This second set of resources on providing supportive services to youth includes information on: addressing the needs of runaway or homeless youth; youth exiting the juvenile justice system; legal aid, including children’s law programs; transportation; domestic and intimate partner violence; and youth assessment and case management.
August, 2021
Toolkit
This toolkit offers steps on how the juvenile justice and workforce development systems can collaborate to serve youth with justice involvement. The toolkit includes a review of evidence-based practices in youth workforce development, an examination of how the public workforce system is funded under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), examples of how to utilize WIOA-funded services for better outcomes for youth with justice involvement, and steps that could be taken to form interagency partnerships between the juvenile justice and workforce development systems.
December, 2020
Report
Opportunity populations—such as youth between the ages of 17-24 who are not in school or out of work, formerly incarcerated persons, members of indigenous communities, refugee populations, homeless persons, and people with disabilities—all face various challenges and barriers to upward mobility. This U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation report offers guidance to stakeholders as they work with and help opportunity populations understand new technologies and navigate today’s job market.
September, 2020
Webinar / Webcast
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration has developed this webcast to address questions for prospective applicants for the Young Adult Reentry Partnership Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). The webcast covers application submission requirements; applicant and participant eligibility; required partnerships, grant activities, and components; priority consideration; and the evaluation of Reentry Employment Opportunities projects. Grant applications are due on April 20, 2020.
March, 2020
Research-To-Practice Brief
This research-to-practice brief identifies programmatic solutions to support reentry for young adults who have been involved in the juvenile justice or criminal justice system as they navigate employment and education pathways. The brief summarizes best practices from nine communities under the three-year U.S. Department of Labor-funded Compass Rose Collaborative (CRC). CRC communities are: Southeast Arkansas; Los Angeles, California; Denver, Colorado; Hartford, Connecticut; Louisville, Kentucky; Baltimore, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts; St. Louis, Missouri; and Albany, New York.
February, 2020
Report
This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report is a feasibility evaluation of the Bridges to Pathways (Bridges) program. The Bridges program addressed youth ages 17 to 21 exiting the criminal or juvenile justice system. Through the program, participants who did not have a high school diploma earned this credential. They also engaged in social-emotional learning workshops, and participated in a subsidized internship.
December, 2019
Report
This MDRC report, prepared for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, is an evaluation of the Learn and Earn to Achieve Potential (LEAP)TM initiative. LEAP is designed to improve education and employment outcomes among youth from 15 years old to 25 years old who have been in the criminal justice or child welfare systems or who have experienced homelessness.
September, 2019