[Excerpt below]

"Programs to train low-skilled, underemployed adults to move up the economic ladder are notoriously ineffective, but Project Quest in San Antonio has hit on a formula with a now-proven track record.

Helping people move from poverty to the middle class is not easy, nor is it quick. But a sustained effort can take a 30-something single mom with a high school education from $10,721 a year in wages to $27, 187 in just five years after graduation. After four more years, she can make $33,644.

In a nine-year longitudinal study, Project Quest participants made more money, obtained more skills and worked more hours than a demographically-identical control group.

“To see earning differences this large and for this long is unprecedented in the workforce development field,” said Mark Elliott, CEO of the Economic Mobility Corp., an independent organization that studied the program."

In photo above, COPS/Metro leader Sr. Consuelo Tovar fights for local funding of Project QUEST.  [Photo Credit: Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News]  In bottom photos, trainees learn to cradle a newborn and conduct PERRLA evaluations.  [Photo Credit: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News]

San Antonio Program Moves Low-Skilled into Middle Class, Houston Chronicle [pdf]

Nine Year Gains: Project QUEST's Continuing Impact, Economic Mobility Corporation [pdf]

Texas ACE Fund Return on Investment, Texas IAF