The YouthBuild Welfare-to-Work Program:
Its Outcomes and Policy Implications

A Forum — April 19, 2002

The nation's welfare law requires most welfare recipients to participate in work-related activities and to get and keep a job. For young people with little work experience, with a history of family dependence on welfare, or with multiple barriers to employment, this new system poses a particular challenge. There are 2.4 million low-income, out-of-school 16 to 24-year-olds in our country at any one time who belong to this group. Currently, our country's primary programs for this population are funded and staffed to educate and train only 200,000 of these 2.4 million youth.

YouthBuild (YB) is a year-long program that offers job training, education, counseling, and leadership development opportunities to unemployed and out-of-school young adults, ages 16-24, through the construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing in their own communities. It was founded in the 1970's and has grown to 165 operating programs in 46 states around the country. It has proven to be highly successful.

In 1998, YouthBuild USA - the national nonprofit support center and intermediary for the YouthBuild movement - applied for and received a US Department of Labor competitive Welfare-to-Work (WtW) grant to operate ten YouthBuild WtW programs. Each of the sites had been in operation for at least two years and had demonstrated good outcomes. Anne Wright, grant manager for the YouthBuild Welfare-to-Work grant from 1998 to June 2001, opened the Forum session by describing the YouthBuild program in greater detail and presenting the findings of the final report for the grant period (The YouthBuild Welfare-to-Work Program: Its Outcomes and Policy Implications, July 2001).

In a typical YouthBuild program there are 30-50 enrollees to 6-10 staff. During the 12-month program duration, participants spend approximately one-half of their time at construction sites, building affordable housing in their communities and acquiring a marketable skill. The other half of their time is spent in academic classes, working toward a GED or high school diploma.

Multiple staff members (program director, teacher, counselor, construction trainer, job developer) assist the young person's growth in various ways. Critical barriers such as substance abuse or family violence are addressed, sometimes through referrals to partner agencies in the community, and sometimes "in house" through the YouthBuild program. A key factor in the program is the establishment of a positive peer group, replacing the negative influences of "street life" and often continuing as an "alumni" group after graduation. YouthBuild is a multi-disciplinary program that addresses all aspects of life through five components, including: development of building construction skills, education, counseling, follow-up support for up to 12 months after graduation, and leadership development (premised on the fact that youth should take responsibility for their own lives, their families, and governance of the YB program, etc.).

For the Welfare-to-Work program, the ten sites integrated WtW participants with the YB participants. There were a total of 346 WtW participants, with 54% in the "hard to serve" category. Because of Welfare to Work eligibility requirements, the age range was increased to 27 years. A typical YB program has a male to female ratio of 65/70% to 35/30%. The WtW participant's ratio was 45% male and 55% female. In the typical YB program, 45% or participants are parents, compared with the 90% parents in the WtW group. Parents, as a group, has the greatest number of successful job placements.

YouthBuild USA's report of the findings and implications of the grant program included comparison of job placement and wage rates for the Welfare to Work participants in the 10 YouthBuild program sites with WtW participants in other national WtW programs. For the YouthBuild group, 50% of all enrollees and 93% of graduates were placed in jobs, compared to 44% of all enrollees in other national programs. The average wage at placement for the YouthBuild WtW group was $7.91, compared with $6.81 in other programs.

Compared to the average outcomes for non-WtW YouthBuild participants, the WtW outcomes were somewhat lower: Non-WtW participants had a graduation rate of 60-63% of all enrollees and placement in a job or education program of 80-85%. The GED attainment rate was 35-42% compared to WtW of 24%. The average wage of the WtW participants, however, was somewhat higher than the average for non-WtW graduates.

YB costs approximately $20,000 per person. Funding comes from various sources, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that has awarded grants and contracts to YouthBuild programs totaling $193 million for fiscal years 1993 to 1998. The buildings that are rehabilitated or constructed during the program are usually owned and managed by community-based organizations as permanent low-income housing.

Yvonne Beckles-Thomas, Director, Fulton Atlanta YouthBuild, manages one of the YouthBuild WtW programs. Carla Hanns, a former trainee who has participated in the Atlanta YouthBuild WtW project, accompanied her. The Atlanta YB is part of a community action program with long-standing relationships with the local Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and school system. The WtW program seemed a logical extension to their work. There were 42 Welfare-to-Work participants and 24 non-WtW participants in the Atlanta program. Attendance in the WtW group was 70%, compared to 90% in the non-WtW group.

Atlanta's YB program provides a "stream of services" to respond to the variety of reasons that people come into their programs. All of their programs are designated "ready to work", and include life skills, problem solving and money management. There is a strong emphasis on follow-up and graduate services. Carla Hanns highlighted some of the elements of the YB program that had been important to her success, in particular the provision of child care and transportation vouchers. As a result of her participation in the program, she passed her GED, completed the Job Ready program (consisting of developing interviewing skills and resume writing, etc.), and is currently employed.

YouthBuild USA staff concluded that the program design worked relatively well with the Welfare-to-Work population, compared with other program designs. The most important conclusions and implications that staff drew from these Welfare-to-Work programs are:

• Low income youth, including those who are former long-term welfare recipients, are willing and able to go to work when given the necessary opportunities and supports to use those opportunities;

• Programs serving this population need to be not only multi-disciplinary like the YouthBuild model, but also at least nine months in duration with excellent follow-up services;

• High quality job developers need to be on staff and on hand;

• Eligibility criteria should be examined to ensure that they are viable; and

• Policies should be examined for inconsistencies that may have negative impact on the Native American population.

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