Program and System-Level Approaches to Overcoming Workforce Disconnection for Justice-Involved Young Adults

• In Event: Stigma and Labor Market Disconnection: Criminal-Record-Based Risk Control, Its Effects on Employment Opportunity, and Efforts to Overcome Related Workforce Disconnection

Abstract

Labor market disconnection among young adults is a problem compounded by barriers to employment like criminal records screening, decreased demand for low-skill workers, and low wages that offer little enticement to engage with the workforce. Programs designed to increase labor market participation and reduce recidivism have had mixed long-term results, particularly those with shorter-term interventions. This presentation reviews the evidence base for several programming approaches to overcoming workforce engagement barriers, discusses strategies programs use for ushering justice-involved young adults back into the workforce, and examines current policies intended to reverse disconnectedness among high-risk young adults. We then present preliminary findings from a program seeking to improve employment opportunities for high-risk young adults, discuss recidivism rates for participants placed in employment, and provide an assessment of the program’s strategies to mitigate risk to employers who hire participants in the program.

Author

• Sarah Jalbert, Abt Associates Inc.