...But going from no income and no job prospects to a job that pays $20,000 a year is still a tremendous step up. Empowerment training also helps people stop thinking about low-paying jobs as dead-end jobs and start viewing them as opportunities. The concepts Osgood introduces, reinforced over weeks and months, leave participants better able to work with others, take direction, set goals, and work to reach them.
Personal coaches also work with participants while they're in the program, and for two years after they get a job. They help resolve any personal issues that might affect the participant's ability to succeed at work. That might mean connecting her to day-care services or to small grants for fixing a broken car.
The types of jobs TCR participants move into are typically high-turnover positions, says Joyce Gill, director of Employer Services. But employers find that the people they hire though TCR stick around. "With our participants, I think they're grateful for the chance to prove themselves," Gill says.
Participants "graduate" from the program when they've held their jobs for a year. More than 80 percent of participants who find jobs stay in those jobs for over a year, and 70 percent for two years. According to the calculations of former CEO Art Berman and independent economists from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve and the state government, every dollar invested in the program delivers a $7 benefit to the taxpayer—in reduced spending on social services, increased revenues from tax payments, and economic impact from personal spending.
http://www.citylab.com/work/2014/06/the-job-training-program-that-actually-works/372750/
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