Advancing Referral Processes within Ontario’s Employment Services Sector – Phase 2 (in progress). EVIDENCE, in collaboration with A Commitment to Training and Employment for Women, conducted Phase 1 of this project. Findings identified 1) gaps in resources needed by women and youth in both rural and urban settings across Ontario’s service delivery network, 2) effective referral practices for these specific client groups and 3) ways to improve referral procedures. Phase 1 concluded with a discussion of the focus group findings, shared learnings, education on the issues and opportunities, and check in with the sector on the validity of the research conclusions. Phase 2 will involve a web cast forum to discuss the results of Phase 1. It will also see the creation of case studies on agencies that feature innovative or significantly successful referral processes or that have recently examined their procedures or have mapped client pathways in an effort to improve referrals. Out of these case studies, we will identify best practices based on regional variation, types of clientele served, and programs offered. We will also provide recommendations for implementation sector-wide, where possible. Phase 2 will culminate in a report and training presentations that integrates the case studies, as well as the research findings and webcast event lessons learned. The outcomes of this project will illuminate the current climate of referral within the network, including attitudes towards referral, successful referral processes, techniques to serve specific client needs more fully, challenges and issues, and highlight internal methods for assessing and improving procedures.
An Evaluation of a Youth Employment Training Program: The Remix Project (2009). Program evaluation when done right can not only identify program strengths and participant outcomes, but it can also provide strategic direction for both program and organizational development. This project evaluated the Remix Project, a program created by LAMP Community Health Centre in 2006 to respond to the problem of youth crime in one of Toronto's 13 priority neighbourhoods by engaging marginalized and racialized youth through music and the arts, over a three-year period. Not only did the evaluation fulfill funder requirements, but it proved to be particularly useful to administrators of the Remix Project as it was in the process of becoming an independently-run organization after a long period of having been grandfathered by LAMP Community Health Centre since its inception.
A Participatory Evaluation of the Financial Capability of Youth Project (2009). Multi-barriered youth often do not make enough money to cover their basic needs. Social and Enterprise Development Innovations (SEDI), a national organization dedicated to enabling poor and unemployed Canadians become self-sufficient, developed the Financial Capability of Youth (FCY) project, a curriculum and training program for service deliverers. The goals of the FCY project were to train staff at organizations across Ontario to deliver the FCY curriculum to youth and increase their financial capability. EVIDENCE used a staged approach to stakeholder engagement, striking a stakeholder committee and consulting with members regularly throughout the evaluation. As a result, when EVIDENCE shared the final recommendations at the end of three-year engagement, SEDI had already put many of these into action.
How to Use Surveys to Conduct Community-Based Research: A Webinar Series (2008). Since funding for evaluation is insecure and short-term at best, YOUTHLINK, a youth-serving agency in Toronto instead focused on developing its internal capacity to conduct and critique its own research, including evaluation research. Facilitated by EVIDENCE, staff from different programs engaged in workshops in a web-based conferencing format to design and conduct an evaluation using a survey that elicited feedback from participants across all of the agency’s programs. The survey provided information about participants’ experience of: how they first got involved with YOUTHLINK and any obstacles they encountered, the quality of the relationship they had with their worker (therapeutic alliance), what they got out of participating (outcomes), and any barriers they had to participation. EVIDENCE facilitated meetings with stakeholders to discuss the implications of key findings and how to develop practical recommendations based on these findings.
Advancing Referral Processes Within Ontario’s Employment Services Sector – Phase 1 (2008). Under the terms of the recent Labour Market Development Agreement (LMDA), the federal government transferred funding and resources linked to employment supports and benefits to the Ontario government. The establishment of Employment Ontario offered the promise of “a one-stop source of information and services for students, job seekers and employers.” However, recent community-based research suggested that the implementation of LMDAs in other provinces had not effectively addressed issues of fragmentation and the needs of diverse and high-need clients. Further, the commitment to comprehensive services meant that agencies have to patch together programs and funding because fractured government policy, programming and investments did not provide an integrated approach. Further, program funding agreements and service delivery guidelines within the Ontario employment services sector did not adequately account for the amount of work required to help agencies address the multiple barriers that many of their clients face with respect to securing employment. With limited time and resources, agencies are stretched as they try to co-ordinate referrals and services. This project, done in collaboration with A Commitment to Training and Employment for Women, identified 1) gaps in resources needed by women and youth in both rural and urban settings across Ontario’s service delivery network, 2) effective referral practices for these specific client groups and 3) ways to improve referral procedures. Findings from practitioners working with women and youth across urban and rural settings reflect very common experiences. The vast majority of clients served experience significant and often multiple barriers to employment. Additional systemic barriers make it challenging for them to access the services they need. These were both barriers within the employment services sector such as lack of service continuity, and rigid eligibility criteria for government services, and barriers across sectors such as long waiting lists to access other required services such as affordable housing, mental health and addiction treatment, and insufficient transportation, particularly in geographically remote or rural areas. The most important strategy that stakeholders pointed to was networking with a broad range of agencies in their community, and building personal relationships with the staff in those agencies. The recommendations highlighted by respondents suggest that there are tangible, system-wide opportunities to both increase the coordination of existing employment services and supports, and to shift the current service priorities and funding to better respond to identified client needs.
Talking Points: A Cross-Regional Dialogue on Youth Employment (2008). Youth across the province of Ontario face high unemployment. Although agencies in the employment services sectors work hard to place youth in meaningful jobs, staff often expresses frustration at the lack of employer participation on this issue. In collaboration with the Toronto Training Board, EVIDENCE explored the individual factors contributing to successful relationships between job developers, employers and youth that lead to youth employment and job retention. Findings identified various individual factors among youth that increased the likelihood of their being hired and retained such as realistic expectations of the job market, an understanding of job-related expectations, and a willingness to learn, as well as individual barriers such as a lack of clarity regarding their career interests or goals and poor communication skills. Some individual barriers that youth experience are heightened by unrealistic employer expectations such as finding youth who know exactly what they want and can express their commitment from a very early age. Employers most likely to hire youth facing barriers are characterized as having a willingness take risks and accommodate special needs, an appreciation of the bigger picture and the potential benefits to youth and the broader community, and as being knowledgeable about youth employment programs and services. Both employers and job developers that help retain youth are supportive, open to feedback, responsive to employee interests and offer supervision or mentoring. From the employer’s perspective, a youth’s ‘fit’ in the workplace is key to their successful retention. Practices that contribute to retaining youth include screening employers to ensure appropriate fit, having open communication with employers, coaching employers along, showing appreciation to the youth and offering fair financial compensation, providing training opportunities, and accommodating special needs. Recommendations related to the employment services sector included providing longer-term job coaching services to support youth retention, building capacity for retention-focused employer relationships, using screening tools to determine if employers have characteristics that increase the likelihood of hiring youth, and expanding opportunities for developing workplace mentors, for example through Co-operative Education or the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program.
An Evaluation of a Youth Employment Training Program: The Remix Project (2009). Program evaluation when done right can not only identify program strengths and participant outcomes, but it can also provide strategic direction for both program and organizational development. This project evaluated the Remix Project, a program created by LAMP Community Health Centre in 2006 to respond to the problem of youth crime in one of Toronto's 13 priority neighbourhoods by engaging marginalized and racialized youth through music and the arts, over a three-year period. Not only did the evaluation fulfill funder requirements, but it proved to be particularly useful to administrators of the Remix Project as it was in the process of becoming an independently-run organization after a long period of having been grandfathered by LAMP Community Health Centre since its inception.
A Participatory Evaluation of the Financial Capability of Youth Project (2009). Multi-barriered youth often do not make enough money to cover their basic needs. Social and Enterprise Development Innovations (SEDI), a national organization dedicated to enabling poor and unemployed Canadians become self-sufficient, developed the Financial Capability of Youth (FCY) project, a curriculum and training program for service deliverers. The goals of the FCY project were to train staff at organizations across Ontario to deliver the FCY curriculum to youth and increase their financial capability. EVIDENCE used a staged approach to stakeholder engagement, striking a stakeholder committee and consulting with members regularly throughout the evaluation. As a result, when EVIDENCE shared the final recommendations at the end of three-year engagement, SEDI had already put many of these into action.
How to Use Surveys to Conduct Community-Based Research: A Webinar Series (2008). Since funding for evaluation is insecure and short-term at best, YOUTHLINK, a youth-serving agency in Toronto instead focused on developing its internal capacity to conduct and critique its own research, including evaluation research. Facilitated by EVIDENCE, staff from different programs engaged in workshops in a web-based conferencing format to design and conduct an evaluation using a survey that elicited feedback from participants across all of the agency’s programs. The survey provided information about participants’ experience of: how they first got involved with YOUTHLINK and any obstacles they encountered, the quality of the relationship they had with their worker (therapeutic alliance), what they got out of participating (outcomes), and any barriers they had to participation. EVIDENCE facilitated meetings with stakeholders to discuss the implications of key findings and how to develop practical recommendations based on these findings.
Advancing Referral Processes Within Ontario’s Employment Services Sector – Phase 1 (2008). Under the terms of the recent Labour Market Development Agreement (LMDA), the federal government transferred funding and resources linked to employment supports and benefits to the Ontario government. The establishment of Employment Ontario offered the promise of “a one-stop source of information and services for students, job seekers and employers.” However, recent community-based research suggested that the implementation of LMDAs in other provinces had not effectively addressed issues of fragmentation and the needs of diverse and high-need clients. Further, the commitment to comprehensive services meant that agencies have to patch together programs and funding because fractured government policy, programming and investments did not provide an integrated approach. Further, program funding agreements and service delivery guidelines within the Ontario employment services sector did not adequately account for the amount of work required to help agencies address the multiple barriers that many of their clients face with respect to securing employment. With limited time and resources, agencies are stretched as they try to co-ordinate referrals and services. This project, done in collaboration with A Commitment to Training and Employment for Women, identified 1) gaps in resources needed by women and youth in both rural and urban settings across Ontario’s service delivery network, 2) effective referral practices for these specific client groups and 3) ways to improve referral procedures. Findings from practitioners working with women and youth across urban and rural settings reflect very common experiences. The vast majority of clients served experience significant and often multiple barriers to employment. Additional systemic barriers make it challenging for them to access the services they need. These were both barriers within the employment services sector such as lack of service continuity, and rigid eligibility criteria for government services, and barriers across sectors such as long waiting lists to access other required services such as affordable housing, mental health and addiction treatment, and insufficient transportation, particularly in geographically remote or rural areas. The most important strategy that stakeholders pointed to was networking with a broad range of agencies in their community, and building personal relationships with the staff in those agencies. The recommendations highlighted by respondents suggest that there are tangible, system-wide opportunities to both increase the coordination of existing employment services and supports, and to shift the current service priorities and funding to better respond to identified client needs.
Talking Points: A Cross-Regional Dialogue on Youth Employment (2008). Youth across the province of Ontario face high unemployment. Although agencies in the employment services sectors work hard to place youth in meaningful jobs, staff often expresses frustration at the lack of employer participation on this issue. In collaboration with the Toronto Training Board, EVIDENCE explored the individual factors contributing to successful relationships between job developers, employers and youth that lead to youth employment and job retention. Findings identified various individual factors among youth that increased the likelihood of their being hired and retained such as realistic expectations of the job market, an understanding of job-related expectations, and a willingness to learn, as well as individual barriers such as a lack of clarity regarding their career interests or goals and poor communication skills. Some individual barriers that youth experience are heightened by unrealistic employer expectations such as finding youth who know exactly what they want and can express their commitment from a very early age. Employers most likely to hire youth facing barriers are characterized as having a willingness take risks and accommodate special needs, an appreciation of the bigger picture and the potential benefits to youth and the broader community, and as being knowledgeable about youth employment programs and services. Both employers and job developers that help retain youth are supportive, open to feedback, responsive to employee interests and offer supervision or mentoring. From the employer’s perspective, a youth’s ‘fit’ in the workplace is key to their successful retention. Practices that contribute to retaining youth include screening employers to ensure appropriate fit, having open communication with employers, coaching employers along, showing appreciation to the youth and offering fair financial compensation, providing training opportunities, and accommodating special needs. Recommendations related to the employment services sector included providing longer-term job coaching services to support youth retention, building capacity for retention-focused employer relationships, using screening tools to determine if employers have characteristics that increase the likelihood of hiring youth, and expanding opportunities for developing workplace mentors, for example through Co-operative Education or the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program.
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