Scaling Up a Place-Based Employment Program: Highlights From the Jobs Plus Pilot Program Evaluation

Authors: Tessler, Betsy L.     Verma, Nandita     Bigelow, Jonathan     Quiroz-Becerra, Victoria     MDRC     Frescoln, Kirstin P.     Rohe, William M.     Webb, Michael D.     University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill     Khare, Amy T.     Joseph, Mark L.     Miller, Emily K.     Case Western Reserve University    

The original Jobs Plus demonstration was launched in 1998. Of the six sites that were part of the demonstration, only three fully implemented the model. When fully implemented, the model increased tenants’ earned income by 16%. The Jobs Plus model was replicated in 2011 in San Antonio and the Bronx through the Social Innovation Fund (SIF).

HUD is now in the process of scaling up the Jobs Plus model. In April, 2015 HUD announced the first cohort of Jobs Plus grant awards to nine sites. This is an interim report evaluating the start-up of the nine grantees in the first cohort. These sites have implemented the model more quickly and fully than the original demonstration and the SIF replication sites. Within the first 18 months, all nine sites had begun structuring their programs, building partnerships, and implementing the core components of the Jobs Plus model.

This report is one in a series of reports on Jobs Plus:

• Promoting Work in Public Housing: The Effectiveness of Jobs-Plus (2005)
• Sustained Earnings Gains for Residents in a Public Housing Jobs Program: Seven-Year Findings from the Jobs-Plus Demonstration (2010)
• HUD's Jobs Plus Pilot Program for Public Housing Residents: Ongoing Implementation Experiences (2019)
• HUD Jobs Plus Outcomes Evaluation - Long-term Effects from the Original Jobs Plus Demonstration: Employment and Earnings for Public Housing Residents after 20 Years (2023)
• Participation and Labor Market Impacts for the First 24 Sites to Replicate HUD's Jobs Plus Program: Final Report (2023)

More information about HUD’s Jobs Plus program can be found here.

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