Back to Work 50+: Women’s Economic Stability Initiative (BTW50+: WESI) is an AARP program that is geared on building the capacity of local education and training institutions to address the needs of older women workers between 50-64 years of age with incomes between 120% and 200% of poverty level. The six subgrantees’ participation allowed for an increase of the number of program staff members and the capacity to serve larger numbers of participants.
Study Goals:
The evaluation’s three components have the following goals:
- The goal of the implementation study is to describe and assess the program’s fidelity to the prescribed model, implementation challenges, and best practices.
- The goal of the outcomes study is to measure service intensity and participant outcomes using two data sources: the program’s electronic client profile and FIS database and telephone surveys of job candidates at three months, six months, and 12 months after program enrollment.
- The goal of the impact study is to use propensity score matching to create a quasi-experimental comparison group. The comparison group members will be compared with BTW50+: WESI job candidates on three key measures: post-program employment rate, post-program average earnings, and, for training participants, completion of training.
Research Questions:
The report addresses research questions on implementation experiences and features, implementation variations, and job candidate characteristics and perspectives. Among others, the research questions include:
- How do subgrantees develop local partnerships that allow the project to leverage community resources to connect candidates with supportive services and job opportunities?
- What challenges have the participating colleges encountered as they have implemented the BTW50+: WESI model?
- What are the key features of the BTW50+: WESI program model as intended by AARP Foundation, and to what extent have subgrantees achieved fidelity to this model, as measured through a standardized fidelity assessment checklist?
- To what extent do subgrantees have the internal capacity and commitment to offer effective training services to the 50+ population after the conclusion of the program period?
- To what extent do subgrantees target different subsets of job candidates, such as women who have experienced economic hardship as a result of limited work experience or long spells of unemployment, women with limited English language or literacy skills, or women over 60 years of age?
- What changes in attitudes and behavior (related to quality of life, financial management, and computer use) do job candidates exhibit during the year after enrollment?
Findings:
The evaluation found the following:
- BTW50+: WESI was implemented as intended in terms of the number and types of job candidates enrolled, as well as the design, delivery, and receipt of program services.
- Subgrantees reported the following challenges:
- limitations in the types of jobs available in the local labor market,
- difficulty maintaining a stable staff given time-limited grant funding,
- difficulty tracking job candidate outcomes during the follow up period, and
- limited financial capacity to take over funding the program when the grant ended.
- Employer engagement was the most challenging component of the model for subgrantees to implement.
- Job candidates who completed surveys and participated in focus groups gave high satisfaction ratings on core components of the BTW50+: WESI program. However, many job candidates felt that connections with employers needed to be stronger.
For more information, download the full report and report brief.
Full report
Further information
The AARP Foundation