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Since 1998, federally funded One-Stop Service Centers around the country have focused primarily on assisting the unemployed into work. WASC tests a strategy that expands that mission by targeting people who are already working, but at low wages. Through career coaching, skills training, and better connections with employers - and led by a newly integrated team of workforce and welfare professionals housed at the One-Stop--the program strives to help these workers stay employed, build their skills, and advance. At the same time, WASC makes it easier for busy working people to take up existing public financial work supports--a "make work pay" strategy that other research suggests will also help stabilize their employment. But WASC's longer-term goal is more ambitious: to enable these workers to climb career ladders so they will have less need for income supplements to support their families in the future. The program also intends to help employers reduce costly turnover and fill second- and third-rung positions that require more skills than do entry-level slots. This report examines the beginning efforts of two WASC sites to institute these reforms by bridging the divide between the workforce and welfare systems, which typically function in separate silos. Future reports will explain whether they--and other WASC sites--prove successful in implementing the full program vision and improving workers' skills, jobs, and income. (Contains 5 table, 2 figures, and 5 boxes.)

This paper examines how U.S. community colleges can and do organize the diverse set of guidance, counseling, and other supports--collectively known as student services--that surround their academic programming. To many Americans, community colleges are the most accessible way to earn the postsecondary degrees that can be stepping stones to economic and personal success. In addition to typically charging lower tuitions and using less stringent admissions policies than four-year colleges and universities, community colleges are often better geared to the needs of students who have low incomes and to so-called nontraditional students, such as young single parents, financially independent adults, welfare recipients, students of color and of immigrant backgrounds, first-generation college students, and older and disabled students. However, many of these students never graduate from community colleges. To address the problem of high attrition rates in these institutions, MDRC has launched a demonstration called "Opening Doors," which provides for one of the nation's first large-scale experimental evaluations of innovative strategies to help community college students complete their degree programs. Besides curricular and instructional reforms and supplemental financial aid, the third broad strategy being tested in the demonstration is the enhancement of student services. Drawing on a literature review, reconnaissance work to develop Opening Doors, and information on early operations of the community college sites in the demonstration, this paper provides an overview of the current state of student services and promising practices for service delivery. It examines five interrelated but distinct elements of a student services program: academic guidance and counseling; academic supports (direct instruction and tutoring on academic subjects and skills); personal guidance and counseling; career counseling; and supplemental supports like child care, transportation help, supply vouchers. In addition, it considers two strategies for providing student services that cut across these categories: (1) programs targeted to low-income and nontraditional students that offer combinations of different kinds of counseling and supports and (2) multiservice centers. For each element of student services, the paper highlights innovative practices found at community colleges around the country. A concluding section offers observations on needs and opportunities associated with the provision of student services in community college settings. The following are appended: (1) The Opening Doors Sites; and (2) Participants in the 2002 Seminar on Student Services. [Report written with Susan Scrivener and Reishma Seupersad. Report also sponsored by Starr Foundations.]

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 employment and housing among welfare recipients is not well understood; (2) in some cities, welfare recipients living in public housing are harder to employ than other recipients, but not everywhere; (3) welfare-to-work programs can be more effective for recipients in public housing than for those in other types of housing; (4) policymakers should look beyond mainstream welfare-to-work programs to help recipients in public housing succeed more in the labor market; and (5) Jobs-Plus, an employment program aimed at urban public housing residents could do more for public housing residents than mainstream programs targeted without respect to housing status. The study concluded that public officials ought to make housing status a key consideration in developing strategies to strengthen mainstream welfare-to-work programs, and that special efforts may be required in order to promote big improvements in the self-sufficiency of welfare recipients in public housing. (KC)

This report summarizes findings from a comprehensive evaluation of the Center for Family Life (CFL) in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York. CFL provides assessment and counseling, community-school programs, parent education workshops, adult employment programs, foster grandparent programs, neighborhood foster care programs, and a thrift shop. The evaluation examined CFL's origin, mission, services, participants, staff, and obstacles to success from 1993 to 1996. Data from surveys, interviews, and observations of a variety of CFL participants indicate that CFL leaders and staff have succeeded in translating much of its mission into operations. Results depict an institution that integrates various services and adapts to the changing needs of participating families. Parents, caregivers, and young people who spoke about their experiences with CFL typically endorsed the staff and their work and described a neighborhood institution that contributes to the well-being of community members of all ages. Interviews indicated that the CFL staff is committed to agency goals and approaches. Though only limited statistical analyses were possible on the effects of CFL programs on children and families, they indicate generally positive trends. The study notes considerable consensus among the groups closest to CFL (families, staff, and CFL leaders) about what the agency is and does. (SM)

This report details the experiences of six two-generation intervention projects in New York City supported by grants from the Foundation for Child Development. The two-generation projects help low-income families gain access to employment-related services for parents, and developmental services such as quality child care and health care for children. Although programs varied, all included voluntary services, used counseling, and had a moderate level of openness to parent input and decision making. Chapter 1 of the report describes recent changes in the welfare system and efforts to develop two-generation programs and incorporate management information systems. Chapter 2, "The Six Sites: An Overview," profiles the sites and their parent agencies. Chapter 3, "The Challenge of Engaging Parents," focuses on how sites defined the target group of parents and the approaches used to sustain parents' involvement. Chapter 4, "Making Connections," discusses how sites linked their services to others within their agencies and with other systems and agencies. Chapter 5, "Tracking Activities and Outcomes," reports on the use of automated systems for tracking participation patterns, use of services, and outcomes. Chapter 6, "Conclusions," provides checkpoints for two-generation projects to help them maintain a focus on the goals of promoting family economic self-sufficiency and child well-being. Four major challenges that emerged from the projects' experiences include: (1) engaging parents in voluntary interventions; (2) maintaining the integrity of the model; (3) making service connections outside the agency; and (4) keeping track of program processes and outcomes. (Appendices describe grant-making interests for new projects, grant periods, and available technical assistance to sites. Contains 14 references.) (KB)

This second issue in P/PV's "In Brief" series focuses on the San Francisco Beacon Initiative and P/PV's recently released evaluation results. The Beacon Initiative established after-school programs in eight public schools in low-income San Francisco neighborhoods. P/PV's 36-month evaluation examined key developmental and academic outcomes. "Beacons In Brief" summarizes our findings and discusses their implications in the context of larger questions about the after-school field. (Contains 1 figure and 3 endnotes.) [For "Amachi In Brief. P/PV In Brief. Issue 1," see ED503195.]

Why would a law-and-order district attorney in one of the toughest, most crime-prone areas in the nation develop a faith-based alternative to incarceration for youthful offenders? District Attorney Charles J. Hynes credits his faith and a strong conviction that society can't prison-build its way out of the crime problem. Hynes established Youth and Congregations in Partnership (YCP), an innovative local program operated by the Kings County (Brooklyn, New York) District Attorney's Office. Through mentoring and other services, the program aims to reduce criminal recidivism, subsequent adult criminality and self-destructive behaviors among young offenders. This report chronicles the YCP experience; we hope its insights inspire similar innovations throughout the nation. An appendix provides: Sites and Lead Agencies in the National Faith-Based Initiative for High-Risk Youth. (Contains 14 endnotes.)

This report presents an overview of previous research on teenage mothers and education. The report provides practical advice on how educators can work with youth-service workers and community activists to reduce the institutional barriers that keep pregnant and parenting teenagers from remaining in or returning to a diploma-granting educational program or graduate equivalent degree. Chapters 1 and 2 offer a review of what is known about the current situation of pregnant and parenting students and how schools and school districts are responding to them. The third and final chapter offers guidelines on how to initiate a districtwide or school-based strategy for helping young mothers complete high school. It is pointed out that a limitation of this report is that it does not directly consider teenage fathers since young mothers are usually the custodial parents; nevertheless, many of the changes discussed in this report also speak to the educational needs of young fathers. The report concludes that helping teenage mothers when they are young, will, in many cases, help to set them on the path to self-sufficiency, lessening their need for extensive assistance when they are older and thus improving the prospects of their children as well. The appendix includes a list of resource organizations; questions for use in gathering information about students and school services; a list of documents from a New York city working group on educational opportunities for pregnant and parenting adolescents; and a policy statement on school-age parents from the Boston School Committee. (ABL)