Impact Evaluation of Extending Supportive Services to WIOA Youth

Last registered on October 31, 2022
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Impact Evaluation of Extending Supportive Services to WIOA Youth
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0010304
Initial registration date
October 24, 2022

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
October 31, 2022, 3:32 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Patrick Turner
Affiliation
University of Notre Dame
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2022-10-21
End date
2028-09-30
Keywords
Other
Additional Keywords
Impact evaluation
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This project is a collaboration with Catholic Charities Los Angeles (CCLA) to study the impact of their Conrad Career Associates program, an extension of their WIOA programming, on participants’ employment and education outcomes. One of CCLA’s primary programs is Archdiocesan Youth Employment Services (AYE), a 12-month workforce development WIOA program that provides services to youth that are facing barriers to employment. To study the effects of providing additional supportive services to youth exiting WIOA programming, youth exiting AYE will be invited to participate in CCLA’s new Conrad Career Associates program. The program will offer additional supportive services to AYE graduates for up to three years. Applicants will be randomly assigned into one of two groups: the treatment group (offered a spot in the Conrad Career Associates) and the control group (not offered a spot in the program). This study will use a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the intervention against the control group that does not have access to the Conrad Career Associates program. The goal of the study is to enroll 250 individuals over 3 years into the treatment group and an additional 500 individuals into the control group, for a total of 750 study participants. We hypothesize that a supplemental WIOA program such as Conrad Career Associates will lead to participants having improved employment and educational outcomes. Outcomes measured in administrative records and with an 18 month and three-year follow up survey will include housing stability, creditworthiness and use of credit, financial health, education level, community engagement, and income.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Turner, Patrick. 2022. "Impact Evaluation of Extending Supportive Services to WIOA Youth." AEA RCT Registry. October 31. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10304-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
CCLA provides WIOA programming through their AYE program. Youth are served in AYE for up to 12 months, and they are considered to have successfully completed the program if they are entering post-secondary education, have obtained employment, are entering a pre-apprenticeship, or are joining the military. When a youth is successfully exiting AYE, CCLA will inform them of the opportunity to participate in Conrad Career Associates. If youth are interested in Conrad Career Associates, they can attend an information session where they will learn more about the program and will be informed of the research study.
Individuals in Conrad Career Associates will receive a variety of services to support them as they begin their careers. These might include things like help finding housing, getting connected to education, supporting youth with the cost of education, developing life skills, making a career plan, and other services designed to address the youth’s basic needs. For up to three years after they enter the program, youth will be able to access these and other services, with the goal of helping them to overcome their barriers to economic success.
Intervention Start Date
2022-10-21
Intervention End Date
2025-09-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Employment
Enrolled in education
Earnings
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Housing stability
Financial health
Education level
Volunteerism and community engagement
Health: physical, mental, spiritual
Happiness
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We will recruit study participants from youth successfully exiting AYE. Each applicant completes a Qualtrics survey that includes demographic and socioeconomic information that will be used as potential baseline covariates, as well as a consent form.
At least weekly, LEO will randomly select participants from those who have completed the Qualtrics form and consent form to be in either the treatment or control group. To accommodate staffing needs, LEO will separately randomize applicants by program office site, which ensures an equal treatment ratio at each site.
Individuals assigned to the treatment group are offered access to Conrad Career Associates services. Those assigned to the control group are not offered access to the program and will be redirected to other standard services that are offered to AYE graduates, such as career fairs.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization will be done on a Google Sheet using imported random numbers and participant ids from the Conrad Career Associates Qualtrics enrollment survey. At least weekly, LEO will randomly select participants from that period that have completed the survey and consent form to be in either the treatment or control group. We will select one-third of the applicants to be assigned to the treatment group. To accommodate staffing needs, LEO will separately randomize applicants by program office site, which ensures an equal treatment ratio at each site.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Not applicable
Sample size: planned number of observations
750 total individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
- 250 individuals in treatment group
- 500 individuals in control group
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
We assume a post-randomization take-up rate of 70 percent (share of treatment group who enroll in the program), 80 percent power, a type-1 error rate of 5 percent, and that baseline covariates will control for 20 percent of residual variation in the outcome. We estimate that roughly 85 percent of the 750 study participants will complete a follow up survey. Finally, we base control group means on the reported outcomes in AYE’s 2021’s metrics. Employment or in education at endline: 16.7 percentage point increase among those who enrolled in the program; 11.7 pp increase for the entire treatment group (mean = 0.5).
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
The University of Notre Dame Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2022-09-29
IRB Approval Number
22-09-7423
Analysis Plan

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