Preparing Youth for College and Career: A Process Evaluation of Urban Alliance

Preparing Youth for College and Career A Process Evaluation of Urban Alliance BRETT THEODOS, MICHAEL R. PERGAMIT, SARA EDELSTEIN, TAZ GEORGE, AND LESLEY FREIMAN SEPTEMBER 2014 The authors would like to thank the many people who made this report possible. We are grateful for the support of the Corporation for National Service’s Social Innovation Fund, Venture Philanthropy Partners YouthConnect initiative, the World Bank Group’s Community Outreach Program, and the Kellogg Foundation. Special thanks to the dedicated directors and staff at Urban Alliance, in particular Daniel Tsin, Sean Segal, Veronica Nolan, Eshauna Smith, Meagan Carlock, and Sandra Beauch. In addition, we would like to thank Elizabeth Davies for her assistance with several components of this research study. Finally, we would like to thank Burt Barnow, Lauren Eyster, James Kemple, Heather Koball, Nancy Pindus, and Martha Ross for providing helpful comments on this report. Copyright © September 2014. Urban Institute. Permission is granted for reproduction of this file, with attribution to the Urban Institute. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders. Contents Executive Summary 1 Introduction 5 Background 5 Urban Alliance High School Internship Program Model 8 Target Population and Recruitment 8 Program Components 9 Logic Model 10 Data and Methods 11 Impact Study: Looking Ahead 12 Urban Alliance Applicants 13 Characteristics 13 Motivations 17 Program Implementation 18 Recruitment and the Application Process 18 Postsecondary and Employment Training: Pre-work and Workshops 19 Internships 23 Program Coordinators 28 Program Attrition 33 Program Costs 34 Organizational Growth and Change 36 Implications for Practice and Policy 38 Conclusion 40 Appendix: Data and Methods 42 Program Data 42 Secondary Data 42 Interviews and Focus Groups 43 Observations 44 Notes 44 References 46 About the Authors 47 Executive Summary Urban Alliance, headquartered in Washington, DC, serves at-risk youth through its high school internship program, which provides training, mentoring, and work experience to high school seniors from distressed communities in Washington, DC; Baltimore; Northern Virginia; and Chicago. The program serves youth before they become disconnected, helping them successfully transition to higher education or employment after graduation. Urban Alliance has commissioned the Urban Institute to conduct a six-year, randomized controlled trial impact and process evaluation of its high school internship program. This report provides a process analysis of the program; the analysis is informed by extensive evaluator observation and interviews with staff, stakeholders, and youth. It also presents baseline information about Urban Alliance and the youth participating in its high school internship program in Washington, DC, and Baltimore in the 2011–12 and 2012–13 program years. Subsequent reports as part of the impact study will describe the early-adulthood impacts of the Urban Alliance internship program on the youth it serves. Below is a summary of the findings in this first of three reports. PROGRAM MODEL • Goals for youth: The program’s goals for youth are that they (1) improve their hard and soft job skills, (2) gain long-term, office-based employment experience, (3) graduate from high school, (4) attend college or a training program, and (5) identify long-term employment opportunities. • Program components: The program’s key elements are (1) a paid internship in an office setting at a nonprofit organization, corporation, or government agency (daily after school and full-time during the summer); (2) soft and hard skills job training for 4–6 weeks after school at the start of the program (“pre-work training”) and Fridays after school thereafter (“workshops”); (3) coaching and mentoring provided by Urban Alliance Program Coordinators and job mentors at the internship site; and (4) alumni services consisting of individual coaching, alumni reunions and events, and a paid internship opportunity during the summer break from college. CHARACTERISTICS OF PROGRAM APPLICANTS • Demographic characteristics: The average age for all applicants at the start of the program was 17. Ninety percent of applicants were black, and 65 percent of applicants were female. Over half lived only with their mother, 5 percent only with their father, one quarter lived in two-parent homes, and 12 percent lived with neither parent. Four percent have children of their own. • Work experience: Three-quarters of youth reported at least some work experience before applying for the program, with average experience of just less than 10 months in all jobs combined. Common job experience was through summer jobs, including those accessed through the Summer Youth Employment Program in Washington, DC. • Educational background: Slightly more than a quarter of Urban Alliance applicants