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Increasing engagement at WorkSource Centers

Last registered on January 08, 2020

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Increasing engagement at WorkSource Centers
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005197
Initial registration date
January 03, 2020

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
January 08, 2020, 2:30 PM EST

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
PI Affiliation
University of California, Berkeley

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2019-11-11
End date
2021-01-01
Secondary IDs
Abstract
The City of Los Angeles has 16 WorkSource Centers that serve approximately 30,000 residents per year with the ultimate goal of connecting them to meaningful employment and occupational training. The WorkSource Centers achieve this by providing clients free employment services such as career guidance, resume and interview skill building, and employment referrals.Of WorkSource Center clients, around 80% are low income, 80% are people of color, and 40% experience other barriers to employment such as being homeless, justice involved, or substance abuse issues.This randomized experiment evaluates the effect of sending WorkSource Center clients regular communications via text message on client engagement, persistence, and employment and training outcomes.

Registration Citation

Citation
Lasky-Fink, Jessica, Elizabeth Linos and Aparna Ramesh. 2020. "Increasing engagement at WorkSource Centers." AEA RCT Registry. January 08. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5197-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2019-11-11
Intervention End Date
2020-04-14

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1. Workshop/WSC attendance. Data collected via sign-in sheets at WSC events.
2. WSC engagement, as measured by the number of visits to a WSC. Data are recorded by case managers in the WorkSource Centers' administrative database.
3. WSC "touch-points," as measured by clients' self-reported number of conversations or other interactions with their WSC. Data collected via text surveys.
4. Clients' number of outside job-search activities, as measured by clients' self-reported frequency of engagement in non-WSC job-search activities. Data collected via text surveys.
5. Employment outcomes. Data collected by WorkSource Centers and stored in the WSC administrative database.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
All current and active clients will be randomized into one of three conditions:
1. Control: Clients randomized to the control condition will not receive any communications as part of this study. They will continue to receive any routine WSC communications that are part of the current status quo.
2. Reminders: Clients randomized to the Reminders condition will receive weekly text message reminders about upcoming WSC events, workshops, and activities to further their job search.
3. Implementation Intentions: Clients randomized to the Implementation Intentions condition will receive weekly text message reminders about upcoming WSC events, workshops, and activities to further their job search, as well as messages encouraging goal-setting and plan-making as part of their job search.

Clients randomized to the Reminders or Implementation Intentions condition will receive weekly messages for 10 weeks.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done by computer in stata.
Randomization Unit
Randomization will be clustered at the household level. Forty-percent of the sample will be randomized to the control condition; 30% will be randomized to each treatment condition. The randomization will be stratified by WSC and enrollment date, defined as enrollment before/after July 1, 2019, which is the start of LA’s fiscal year.

Randomization will be conducted in two waves:
Cohort 1: At the start of the intervention, all active clients who enrolled in one of Los Angeles’ 16 WSCs between Jan. 1, 2019 and Oct. 31, 2019, and who have at least one recorded visit or engagement with a WSC since May 1, 2019, will be randomized into one of the three conditions outlined above.
Cohort 2: Every four weeks from intervention start, all newly enrolled clients at any one of Los Angeles’ 16 WSCs will be randomized into one of the three conditions outlined above.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Cohort 1 will have approximately 5,400 households (clusters). Will will continue adding newly enrolled clients once per month as feasible until we reach the end of the intervention period or the maximum target sample size of ~16,000 clients or ~15,500 households.
Sample size: planned number of observations
The initial sample size for randomization cohort 1 will be around 5,600 clients. We will continue adding newly enrolled clients once per month as feasible until we reach the end of the intervention period or the maximum target sample size of ~16,000 clients.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
40% of the sample will be randomized to the control condition; 30% will be randomized to each treatment condition. The randomization will be stratified by WSC and enrollment date, defined as enrollment before/after July 1, 2019, which is the start of LA’s fiscal year.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
UC Berkeley Committee for Protection of Human Subjects
IRB Approval Date
2019-10-04
IRB Approval Number
2019-09-12528
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials