Corridor Interfaith Expanded Capital IDEA into Hays County
Leveraging $25,000 for long-term job training, Corridor Interfaith leaders from Living Word Lutheran and San Marcos Unitarian Universalism, along with Capital IDEA alumni, succeeded in persuading Hays County Commissioners to invest local dollars into Capital IDEA. Once matched with state ACE funding, the investment will allow 7-10 Hays County students to train out of poverty and into middle-class careers.
Leaders met with their Hays County representatives over several months to educate them about Capital IDEA and to advocate for the inclusion of funding in the 2020 budget. At the final budget hearing at the commissioners' court, the request was quickly moved forward and approved!
American Enterprise Institute to Research Capital IDEA in Austin
[Excerpt]
Last week, the New York Times highlighted a workforce training program in San Antonio called Project QUEST that helps hundreds of people every year move out of poverty and into sustainable employment. A recent analysis of the program was particularly encouraging. Nine years after entering training, participants are still experiencing high rates of employment and earning over $5,000 more annually than a similar group that didn’t participate in the program. Such outcomes are rare in workforce development programs.
The Times article came out just as AEI’s Vocation, Career, and Work research team began discussions with Capital IDEA in Austin, Texas, an organization that uses a model similar to Project QUEST. Capital IDEA has been working with low-income families in Austin for more than 20 years to move workers from low-wage to middle-skill jobs. In 2018, program graduates earned an average starting wage of $22 per hour. A previous analysis of the program has found sustained wage gains at least four years after program completion.
[Photo Credit: RealClear Policy]
Note: Capital IDEA is a long-term workforce development program established by Austin Interfaith. Project QUEST was established by COPS/Metro in San Antonio.
In Austin, a Public/Private Partnership for Workforce Success, RealClear Policy
New York Times: Job Training Can Change Lives. See How San Antonio Does It.
[Excerpt]
The economic odds facing Avigail Rodriguez a few years ago couldn’t have been much worse. An undocumented immigrant and a single mother, she lived in a cramped apartment in a tough neighborhood in San Antonio and earned just $9 an hour working as a nurse’s assistant.
Today, Ms. Rodriguez, 26, owns her own home in a safer area, earns nearly three times as much as she did before and has secured legal residency. The key to her turnaround was a training program called Project Quest, whose own ability to beat the odds is no less striking than that of Ms. Rodriguez.Project Quest has succeeded where many similar retraining efforts have failed, taking workers lacking in skills and successfully positioning them for jobs where they can earn double or triple what they did previously.
“This really gives employers a chance to find workers they wouldn’t otherwise have considered,” said Lawrence Katz, a labor economist at Harvard University. “At the same time, it provides opportunities to a rather disadvantaged group of workers, both younger and older.”
....
Project Quest was born 27 years ago in a Hispanic neighborhood in San Antonio where poverty rates are above the citywide average. After the closing of a Levi Strauss factory there, community groups [COPS/Metro] created Project Quest as a way of preparing workers for better-paying, more highly skilled jobs that were less vulnerable but still in demand.
[Photo Credit: Joanna Kulesza, New York Times]
Job Training Can Save Lives. See How San Antonio Does It., New York Times [pdf]
Note: Originally established by COPS/Metro in San Antonio, Project Quest is one of several IAF workforce development projects supported by the Texas ACE Fund.
New Study Says Project QUEST Creates Largest, Sustained Earnings Impact in Nation
Since 1992, IAF labor market intermediaries have put low-income workers into high-paying careers in health care, technology and trades. The Economic Mobility Corporation recently released a 14-year “gold standard” randomized control test of San Antonio’s Project QUEST, the flagship labor market intermediary for the IAF.
Study authors assert that “Project QUEST has demonstrated the largest, sustained earnings impacts ever found in a rigorous evaluation of a workforce development program. These findings provide conclusive evidence that investing in the skills of low-income workers not only can make a difference, it can move families out of poverty into the middle class.”
Inspired by the success of Project Quest in San Antonio, IAF leaders have established an additional nine projects in the West and Southwest US: Capital IDEA in Austin; Project ARRIBA in El Paso; VIDA in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas; JobPath in Tucson; NOVA in Northeast Louisiana, Skills-Quest in Dallas; Capital IDEA-Houston; Project IOWA and Arizona Career Pathways. In 2014, DuPage County United launched its own labor market intermediary, Career Connect Metro West.
Collectively, these institutions have trained and placed tens of thousands of adults in living wage jobs which pay, on average, $40,000 annually plus benefits and a career path. This number is expected to grow as the West / Southwest IAF expands this strategy further.
In photos at right, trainees learn to cradle a newborn and conduct PERRLA evaluations at Project QUEST in San Antonio. [Photo Credit: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News]
Nine Year Gains: Project QUEST's Continuing Impact, Economic Mobility Corporation (2019)
San Antonio Program Moves Low-Skilled into Middle Class, Houston Chronicle [pdf]
Not All Programs Fade: New Report on Project QUEST RCT Shows Sizable Nine-Year Earnings Gains for Low-Income Workers, Straight Talk on Evidence [pdf]
Solid Evidence for Career Pathways Out of Poverty, CLASP [pdf]
ACE Program
The Texas IAF invented a unique workforce strategy - first in San Antonio in 1992 and then across Texas - to bring working people out of poverty level jobs and into living wage careers.
This rigorously-studied model has proven to be a fiscally responsible investment that builds self-sufficient families, bolsters a skilled, thriving workforce attractive to businesses, and reduces the burden on state and local agencies.
In building the political will for investment of public monies in long-term training, local Texas IAF organizations brought together employers, community college officials and community leaders to craft long-term workforce development and education programs for actual jobs in high demand occupations.
Collectively, the institutions below have trained tens of thousands of adults into living wage jobs that include benefits and a career path:
Project Quest (San Antonio)
Capital IDEA (Central Texas)
Project ARRIBA (El Paso)
VIDA (Rio Grande Valley)
Capital IDEA-Houston (Houston)
INDEPENDENT STUDIES
The Economic Impact of Project Arriba on El Paso County, Texas, Hunt Institute for Global Competitiveness, University of Texas at El Paso (2021)
Nine Year Gains: Project QUEST's Continuing Impact, Economic Mobility Corporation (2019)
VIDA: Implementation and Early Impact Report, Pathways for Advancing Careers in Education (2018)
Escalating Gains: The Elements of Project QUEST's Success, Economic Mobility Corporation (2018)
Escalating Gains: Project QUEST’S Sectoral Strategy Pays Off, Economic Mobility Corporation (2017)
Economic Impact of Project ARRIBA on El Paso, Texas
UT El Paso, Institute for Policy and Economic Development (2015)
Return on Investment from Capital IDEA: Research Brief, Full Report, 2014 Update
UT Austin, Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources (2011)
VIDA: Economic Impact Study
UT Pan American, Data & Information Systems Center (2010)
Project Quest: A Case Study of a Sectoral Employment Development Approach, Aspen Institute (2001) [pdf]
Capital IDEA: Generational Impact Study (2011)
Beyond Graduation: Promoting Post-Program Engagement & Advancement
Aspen Institute (2009); On the Road to Success video (2010)