This report introduces the MyGoals for Employment Success demonstration. MyGoals is an employment coaching program that helps participants set and achieve goals. It seeks to do so by explicitly focusing attention on participants' executive skills. MyGoals also offers participants a set of financial incentives to encourage, facilitate, and reward…

The Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN) welfare-to-work program in California was evaluated by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC). The evaluation relied on involvement of stakeholders, examination of program implementation, flexibility, the adaptation of evaluation questions and designs during the study, use of random…

Recent research by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) indicates that while recipients in public housing may be a more difficult-to-employ group in some locales, they may also benefit the most from mainstream welfare-to-work programs. Some policy implications raised by the evidence include the following: (1) the link between…

California's Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN) program requires that large numbers of welfare recipients receive job training and preparation for employment. A survey of the program analyzed early operations in 8 of the first 10 counties to implement it; data were gathered from program staff, case records, and field research of the first…

Jobs-Plus is an intensive, place-based initiative for increasing employment among public housing residents. Closely aligned with the goals of the 1998 federal Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998, Jobs-Plus aims to transform public housing communities by increasing employment among residents. Tests of this new employment approach…

California's Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN) program requires that large numbers of welfare recipients receive job training and preparation for employment. Another component of the program addresses the child care needs of program participants. A survey of 626 single-parent program registrants in the first eight counties in which the…

This report updates the interim Virginia Employment Services Program (ESP) participation patterns and examines program success in mandating job search participation. Following an introductory chapter, chapter 2 discusses research design, sample, and data sources. (The sample contained 1,287 Work Incentive Program applicants and 1,897 recipients.)…

This paper poses a question of direct relevance for welfare administrators, program operators, and policy makers: What management practices, program strategies, and local conditions are key to running effective welfare-to-work programs? To address this question, the present analysis links detailed measures of program characteristics to valid and…

The first findings of an evaluation of California's welfare-to-work program, Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN), related to its impact on employment, earnings, and welfare payments. The impact results came from a study of applicants for and recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) in six counties and were limited to the…

The cost-effectiveness and 3-year impacts of California's Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN) program, which is a statewide initiative aimed at increasing the employment and self-sufficiency of recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), were evaluated by studying follow-up data for 33,000 people from 6 counties who entered…