This RAND Corporation brief reviews the New Orleans’ Career Pathways Training Program and its three stages for opportunities within the advanced manufacturing, health care, and information technology industries. The three stages under review include recruitment, training, and coordination with employers. The brief identifies some of the program’s successes and challenges in the implementation of the initiative and provides recommendations for lessons learned in applying the program to other communities.

This Pew Trusts fact sheet profiles Louisiana’s expansion of efforts to provide access to opioid use disorder treatment. The fact sheet details how new legislation requires the Louisiana Department of Health to increase the number of providers to offer medication-assisted treatment and explains how state Medicaid funds can be used to cover case management at hospital settings. Additional legislation in the fact sheet also highlights requirements that the Louisiana Department of Health conduct a needs assessment and develop pathways for opioid treatment programs to receive approval.

This Center for Law and Social Policy report identifies challenges that state level officials encounter in implementing the 2014 reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Block Grant program. State profiles from Alabama, California, and Louisiana are highlighted. Also presented are lessons learned as a result of the lack of resources and data needed to implement the law more effectively.

This paper from MDRC highlights the work of YouthForce NOLA, which works to prepare New Orleans public high school students for post-secondary education and careers in three in-demand local industries: health sciences, creative media and technology, and skilled crafts. The paper provides an overview of the main principles and elements essential to creating a career pathway for high school-aged youth. MDRC is currently completing an implementation evaluation of the program.

This blog post from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services profiles a program in New Orleans called Bridge/Grace House. Bridge/Grace House offers comprehensive long-term residential treatment for men and women who suffer from substance use disorders. Part of the program provides vocational counseling and workforce services designed to ensure lasting recovery and success after treatment; 96% of program participants who complete their full treatment leave the program employed. Additional links are provided in the post to learn more.

This brief examines the Accelerating Opportunity initiative that began in 2011, which helps adults with low basic skills obtain well-paying jobs through increasing their credentials. It reviews the implementation, impact, and cost benefits evaluations of the program in Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, and Louisiana. It showed promising gains for low-skilled adults in the area of education, but earnings impacts were mixed.