With federal government funding through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), Detroit capitalized on a unique opportunity to implement innovative workforce development programs on a large scale. This evaluation focuses on two of Detroit at Work’s signature programs, JumpStart and Skills for Life. JumpStart provides Detroiters who have been unemployed for at least six months with mentorship and monthly cash stipends for up to 18 months to aid with barriers while they participate in other job training, literacy and numeracy support, and job placement programs. Skills for Life is a career development program that hires and compensates Detroiters to work on City projects three days a week and attend education or training two days a week.
For this project, MEF will utilize Detroit at Work’s existing MIS data to conduct a quantitative evaluation of the signature programs. We will describe program activities and service delivery, participant demographics, engagement, and outcomes, and explore variation across partner organizations and communities served.