99P
Workforce Engagement and the Financial Opportunity Center Model: A Qualitative Evaluation of Client Outcomes in Chicago
Drawing attention to the need for comprehensive workforce development programs, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and Anne E. Casey Foundation are coordinating the efforts of nonprofit Financial Opportunity Centers (FOCs) throughout the city of Chicago to implement a package of job readiness and financial management programs providing services to thousands of needy families. Using aspects of the Center for Working Families (CWF) model of economic support, this innovative “three-legged stool” approach to workforce development bundles (1) employment placement and skill improvement, (2) financial coaching and (3) greater access to income supports within a comprehensive service model.
In addition to a larger, quantitative study of services drawn from the full population of service recipients, LISC has developed a qualitative evaluation of services from the perspective of service recipients that will capture recipient outcomes over time. Gathered from unstructured observations and informal interviews over six waves of data collection encompassing three full years over 3,000 hours of cumulative “hands-on” research, this qualitative study provides a rare and unique glimpse into the daily lives of recipients at baseline and catalogue their behaviors and attitudes as they progress through the FOC program.
Answering the overall question of “how the receipt of bundled services enhances the economic and social outcomes of disadvantaged recipients” this paper provides data analysis drawn from the qualitative evaluation of these programs.
Methods
The study uses an ethnographic longitudinal approach and derives data from unstructured observation, informal conversations and in-depth interviews with a battery of Financial Opportunity Center service recipients over multiple waves of data collection. Research ultimately assesses how baseline characteristics changed over the course of time, examines trends across recipients and evaluates a series of economic and social indicators.
Results
The study examines how and why individuals participate in services designed to help alleviate financial distress and how these experiences shape decisions on employment, financial management, and credit-building. Importantly, these experiences are in turn influenced by how FOC programs incorporate client engagement and other program elements. Most interesting, the results indicate an episodic attachment to the workforce program but there remains a “tethering” of clients to FOC services as clients take advantage of them when needed.
Implications
In highlighting the bundled service model and its unique attributes as a workforce development tool, this paper shows the viability of the model in the larger workforce development discourse. Moreover, the nuance and subtlety of ethnographic longitudinal data offers key insights into how the services and programming affect the social and economic outcomes of service recipients. It also provides new insight into the theoretical backdrop of the workforce development literature. It highlights where current theory could better account for the variable involvement of recipients in services and describe how the scholarship neglects issues of under-employment and piece-meal service utilization. Qualitative analysis derived from the rich interview data and recipient outcomes demonstrates how the literature could more effectively incorporate these issues.