A growing body of research shows that comprehensive student support programs can increase graduation rates for students from low-income backgrounds and students of color. But what do these programs look like on the ground? And what are the experiences of students participating in them?
In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with students and staff from Ivy Tech Community College in Bloomington, Indiana about SUCCESS, a student support program that offers personalized advising and financial incentives and emphasizes data-driven program management.
Ivy Tech Community College in Bloomington is one of 13 colleges across five states participating in MDRC’s Scaling Up College Completion Efforts for Student Success (SUCCESS), which aims to increase degree completion through the implementation of comprehensive support programs based on strong evidence.
Too many people in the United States struggle to achieve economic mobility. With the COVID-19 pandemic hitting vulnerable populations the most, gaining financial stability became even harder. Workforce programs that focus on helping people find jobs may not be enough to advance in the labor market, especially for people facing additional barriers to success. The MyGoals for Employment Success program offers a unique coaching model that concentrates on developing executive skills—like emotional control, stress tolerance, time management, and organization—to help participants successfully navigate the labor market, acquire occupational credentials, perform well at a job, and advance at work.
In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with two MyGoals coaches, Shirley McGee from the Houston Housing Authority and Ashley Coston from the Housing Authority of Baltimore, about the challenges the participants and coaches face and the benefits the program offers to the participants.
Programs that combine employment services with substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and recovery services have faced unprecedented challenges in the COVID-19 pandemic, including increased substance misuse and overdose, dramatic increases in unemployment, and the need to quickly shift to virtual service provision.
In partnership, MDRC, Abt Associates, and MEF Associates learned how some of these SUD treatment programs adapted their services early in the pandemic in response to these challenges [ link to the brief]. MDRC recently released a brief on responses to COVID-19 by seven SUD treatment programs across the country. The brief was written as part of the Building Evidence on Employment Strategies Project, or BEES, funded by the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with researchers Karin Martinson from Abt Associates and Susan Scrivener from MDRC about the key findings from the brief. They are joined by Matthew Brown, Senior Vice President of Administration at Addiction Recovery Care (ARC), one of the programs participating in the BEES study.
Work-based learning opportunities, like internships and apprenticeships, are a critical component to many career and technical education programs. They can help participants develop critical skills for in-demand careers. The abrupt shift to virtual education caused by the pandemic hit these programs especially hard.
In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with Hannah Dalporto, a research associate at MDRC, who recently cowrote a piece about how employers and trainers have been adapting their services during the pandemic to keep students connected to the labor market.
Early childhood experiences of trauma and toxic stress can affect how young children develop and are associated with learning and behavior problems. Child First is a promising home visiting program that aims to mitigate or prevent these negative experiences for families to promote healthy development for kids.
An initial study of Child First found that the program improved children's social-emotional skills and language development, reduced mother's depression and improved their psychological functioning, reduced family involvement with child protective services, and increased families' connections to services and support.
In this episode, Leigh Parise talks with Mervett Hefyan, a research analyst at MDRC; Massiel Abramson, a clinician with Child First in Connecticut; and Jessica Canavan, a licensed clinical social worker and assistant director of community-based services at her organization in North Carolina, which houses a Child First program. They discuss MDRC's replication study of Child First and how the program adapted their home-visiting model during the pandemic to continue helping families.