This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief discusses the use of video recordings of interactions between program staff and participants as a data source for an implementation study of four employment coaching interventions for people with low incomes. The brief describes the process for video recording coaching sessions and analyzing the videos, provides examples of what was learned from the data, and offers lessons for researchers considering using video recordings as a data source in future studies.

Workplace mentors can impart their knowledge, skills, and wisdom to apprentices, helping them gain confidence and competence. This guide has four modules and FAQs to support mentors in their relationships with apprentices in youth registered apprenticeship programs. There is also a list of resources that mentors and employers can use when implementing youth apprenticeship programs and information on the benefits of mentoring.

The Iowa Department of Human Rights has implemented the Family Development and Self-Sufficiency (FaDSS) program for more than 30 years. Based on utilizing a coaching approach during home visits with families deemed at greatest risk of long-term welfare receipt, the FaDSS program assists participants with short- and long-term goal setting as they work toward economic self-sufficiency. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report reviews the FaDSS program’s design and implementation and answers key questions about the intervention design, the factors that appeared to have impeded or facilitated the intervention’s implementation, and the clients’ experiences with coaching and the services they received.

Self-regulation skills include the capacity to complete tasks, remain organized, and control one’s emotions and behaviors. The use of these skills can support a person’s ability to find, retain, and progress in employment. Some TANF programs have implemented coaching and other approaches to support participants’ use of self-regulation skills for identifying goals and outcomes related to employment. This Office of Research, Planning and Evaluation report examines the selection and testing of measures of self-regulation skills as part of program evaluations of employment programs. The report addresses three areas: identification of criteria for selecting measures of self-regulation skills, the process to test these measures in an impact evaluation of coaching programs, and how the selection process can be applied to other employment-related studies that are targeted to low-income populations.

This report highlights findings from a process evaluation of the Urban Alliance’s High School Internship Program in Washington, DC, Baltimore, Northern Virginia, and Chicago. The Urban Alliance program model aims to empower economically disadvantaged high school seniors to aspire, work, and succeed. The program provides youth participants with workplace skills training, opportunities for internships to gain work experience, mentorship at the internship site, and coaching support from case managers during youths’ participation in the program as well as for program alumni. The findings of this first of three reports are drawn from interviews, focus groups, and surveys of participating students, case managers, and employers as well as a review of program and secondary data.

This brief reviews youthCONNECT, an initiative implemented in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The initiative integrates college and career preparation skills, life skills training, and connection with a caring adult to improve healthy behaviors, school engagement, and the social and emotional skills of participating students. The youthCONNECT initiative seeks to leverage these improvements into increased high school achievement and postsecondary educational enrollment and employment. The brief describes a survey of 721 students enrolled in the youthCONNECT program based on self-reporting as well as data from these students’ academic records (grades, attendance, and disciplinary actions taken).

This blogpost illustrates the implementation of the A Better Life (ABL) program in Massachusetts–an economic mobility model for public housing residents that incorporates comprehensive case management, community partnerships with local service providers, an escrow savings account, and work requirements. The blogpost identifies how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the nature of the coaching provided by the ABL program to help address ABL participants’ basic and mental health needs and how the pandemic has created opportunity for stronger relationships and trust between participants and coaches as these needs are met. Also discussed are shifts in the goal setting process among participants toward meeting immediate needs and how COVID-19 responses have pushed ABL to a “whole family” approach over centering on individual participants.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report assesses and compares the impact of two models offering cash assistance to Michigan’s TANF recipients to find and keep employment: the Michigan Goal Progress Success (MI-GPS) program (enhancement to Michigan’s TANF program) and the two-step program, the Application Eligibility Period (AEP) followed by the “Partnership. Accountability. Training. Hope.” (PATH) program (Michigan’s existing TANF program). The MI-GPS provides goal-oriented coaching as an enhancement, and AEP/PATH focuses on participation in required work activities. The report reviews the two programs’ implementation as well as the differences in the types of services and assistance delivered, and in employment and earnings outcomes.

This blogpost highlights discussions with representatives of 13 schools, districts, and program intermediaries that provide work-based learning opportunities. Representatives discuss the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on onsite opportunities, such as apprenticeships, internships, career mentoring, and job shadowing. Opportunities and adaptions for virtual workplace learning created as a result of the pandemic and the potential for long-term benefits to participants are also discussed.

This blogpost provides guidance on lessons learned from implementing the MyGoals for Employment Success program, an employment coaching model that assists participants during the pandemic. The blogpost draws a structured set of relevant questions and answers that might be asked of coaches and managers of the MyGoals model and other social service programs. Topics include supporting participants with scheduling changes in light of lockdowns, transitions in client management, how to encourage participants with self-directed goal setting, accessing and paying for medications, working in an unsafe environment, receiving SNAP or unemployment insurance benefits, how to use online technology, and addressing grief.