This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation issue brief examines how two agencies, Alameda County, California and the Colorado Department of Human Services use continuous quality improvement (CQI) in implementing their programs that address youth at risk of homelessness. CQI is a process-oriented evaluation that supports the enhancement of programs and practices through ongoing collection analysis of real-time data to identify and test changes in program implementation. Key components of this brief look at the CQI process design features at these two agencies, how the CQI process affected the operation of the agency’s interventions to prevent homelessness among youth and young adults who have been involved in the child welfare system, and what advice the two agencies have for other entities that may use CQI in their program reviews.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report examines San Francisco’s STEP Forward program, which targeted diverse low-income job seekers including CalWORKs (California’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program) or CalFresh (California’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) recipients, or individuals who have exhausted unemployment insurance benefits. This paper describes a random assignment evaluation of 837 adults – those with access to STEP Forward services and a control group without access to STEP Forward services but to other services. First-year costs of the program for job readiness services and subsidies were evaluated.

This webpage provides information on City College of San Francisco’s noncredit Vocational English as a Second Language classes which introduce students to work-related vocabulary and help with employment-related language skills. Also provided is a link to I-BEST/Supported Instruction classes, as well as information about the college’s Adult Education Program and a link to the current schedule of classes.

Created by three social justice activists in 1965, Arriba Juntos (originally named the Organization for Business, Education and Community Advancement) is committed to meeting the needs of the Latino population of the Mission District in San Francisco, including adequate housing and education, health care, reliable child care, and improved employment opportunities. Arriba Juntos’ English as a Second Language classes help new immigrants find employment and become involved in their children’s education.

This MDRC report is an evaluation of Breaking Barriers, a San Diego-based program that offered employment services for low-income persons with disabilities using an Individual Placement and Support approach. The report includes an implementation study, an impact analysis, and a cost study of the program which operated from January 2016 to June 2018. The study, which enrolled 1,061 individuals in the analysis, measured differences among program and control groups in the impact of the Breaking Barriers model on employment, earnings, continued need for public benefits and assistance, and physical and mental health outcomes.