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Health & Barriers to Employment
  Criminal Justice  
     
    Transitional Jobs
Background, Program Models, and Evaluation Evidence
    2010. Dan Bloom.

Transitional jobs programs provide temporary, wage-paying jobs and other services to help individuals who have difficulty succeeding in the regular labor market. In the context of a new federal initiative to support and study these programs, this paper describes what is known about transitional jobs and offers ideas for program design and research.
 
    Alternative Welfare-to-Work Strategies for the Hard-to-Employ
Testing Transitional Jobs and Pre-Employment Services in Philadelphia
    2009. Dan Bloom, Sarah Rich, Cindy Redcross, Erin Jacobs, Jennifer Yahner, and Nancy Pindus.

Interim results from an evaluation of two different welfare-to-work strategies for long-term welfare recipients show that transitional jobs increase employment and earnings but that it is difficult to successfully engage participants in extensive pre-employment services.
 
    Transitional Jobs for Ex-Prisoners
Implementation, Two-Year Impacts, and Costs of the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) Prisoner Reentry Program
    2009. Cindy Redcross, Dan Bloom, Gilda Azurdia, Janine Zweig, and Nancy Pindus.

A random assignment study shows that participants in CEO’s transitional jobs program were less likely to be convicted of a crime, to be admitted to prison for a new conviction, or to be incarcerated for any reason in prison or jail over the first two years. The program also had a large but short-lived impact on employment.
 
    Working toward Wellness
Early Results from a Telephone Care Management Program for Medicaid Recipients with Depression
    2009. Sue Kim, Allen LeBlanc, and Charles Michalopoulos.

Very early results from a random assignment study suggest that Working toward Wellness increased the use of mental health services and had mixed effects on depression severity. Impacts are concentrated among Hispanic participants.
 
    The Joyce Foundation’s Transitional Jobs Reentry Demonstration
Testing Strategies to Help Former Prisoners Find and Keep Jobs and Stay Out of Prison
    The Joyce Foundation
2009. Dan Bloom.

Each year, almost 700,000 people are released from state prisons, and many struggle to find jobs and integrate successfully into society. This policy brief describes an innovative demonstration of transitional jobs programs for former prisoners in Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, and St. Paul being conducted by MDRC.
 
    Transitional Jobs for Ex-Prisoners
Early Impacts from a Random Assignment Evaluation of the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) Prisoner Reentry Program
Working Paper
    2007. Dan Bloom, Cindy Redcross, Janine Zweig (Urban Institute), and Gilda Azurdia.

After one year, CEO’s transitional jobs program generated a large but short-lived increase in employment for ex-prisoners. A subgroup of recently released prisoners showed positive effects on recidivism: They were less likely to have their parole revoked, to be convicted of a felony, and to be reincarcerated than the control group.
 
    Four Strategies to Overcome Barriers to Employment
An Introduction to the Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation Project
    2007. Dan Bloom, Cindy Redcross, JoAnn Hsueh, Sarah Rich, and Vanessa Martin.

This demonstration is evaluating four diverse strategies designed to improve employment and other outcomes for low-income parents and others who face serious barriers to employment.
 
    Employment-Focused Programs for Ex-Prisoners
What Have We Learned, What Are We Learning, and Where Should We Go from Here?
Working Paper
    2006. Dan Bloom.

Each year, the more than 600,000 people released from prison face numerous obstacles to successful reentry into society, starting with the challenge of finding stable work. What does existing research say about the effectiveness of work-focused programs for ex-prisoners?
 
    The Power of Work
The Center for Employment Opportunities
Comprehensive Prisoner Reentry Program
    2006. The Center for Employment Opportunities and MDRC.

The Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) serves nearly 2,000 reentering prisoners a year with a structured program of pre-employment training, immediate short-term transitional work, and job placement services. This report, written jointly by CEO and MDRC, describes how the CEO program operates. Results from a random assignment evaluation by MDRC are expected next year.
 



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