The Final Report on Metro-Atlanta LWIA Project to Aid the Long-Term Unemployed

The mission of the Metro–Atlanta Local Workforce Investment Area (LWIA) Consortium is to provide targeted and subsidized work experiences to the long–term unemployed people. The Metro–Atlanta LWIA is comprised of five local workforce investment areas spanning 10 Georgia counties. The five local workforce investment areas are the Atlanta Regional Commission, Atlanta Workforce Development Agency, Cobb Works, DeKalb Workforce Development, and the Fulton County Office of Workforce Development. The program was administered through the DeKalb Workforce Development (DWD) agency and was designed to function as a local implementation of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998.

The LWIA Consortium's goal under this grant was to reemploy 125 long–term unemployed individuals through the program. This temporary employment placement ideally would lead to additional work experience and eventually to unsubsidized permanent employment outside of the program. The central goal of the program was to provide recent work experiences so that the participants would be better equipped to secure regular employment. The program also offered supplemental training opportunities through the Manpower Training and Development Center (TDC) for program participants that lacked specific skills to reenter the workforce.

The goal of this implementation study was to determine 1) if the implementation of the program went as planned; 2) to document the challenges of implementing the program; and 3) to determine which factors led to the program’s success. The information gained through the implementation study will be used to help improve the program if continued and to examine lessons from the field in the area of practice and sustainability.

The evaluator conducted a process evaluation, capturing information from a variety of program participants. This evaluation used a mixture of methods to collect the data. These methods included a review of administrative documents and semi-structured telephone interviews with key informants. These data collection methods built upon each other; the first method of reviewing administrative documents informed specific questions in the interview protocol for each key informant group.

(This report is 49 pages long.)

The Metro-Atlanta LWIA Project evaluation found that the program was not implemented as planned and that challenges in program implementation limited the program’s effectiveness. The implementation study found that communication among key partners was a challenge; there were few opportunities for coordination of efforts and project goals were not clear to all organizations participating in the intervention. Additionally, recruiting employers to participate in subsidized placements was more difficult than originally anticipated. Some employers were not aware of the benefits of the program and others that did participate did not have the capacity to sustain the subsidized placements over six months or hire jobseekers in unsubsidized employment at the end of the placement. Finally, it was challenging to recruit participants who met the eligibility requirements (i.e., had at least a high school diploma or GED and had been unemployed for at least one year but no longer than two years) but also had sufficient job readiness skills to be successful in subsidized employment. Participants (especially those placed or work-ready) found the resources offered by both the staffing agencies and the LWIA to be helpful in preparing them for the workforce. The outcomes study found that 203 jobseekers participated in the program but pre- and post-intervention outcome data were limited. The outcome study found no statistically significant findings on employment or earnings. Given the small sample size, generalizations about the effectiveness of the intervention cannot be made.

The evaluator offered a number of recommendations at the conclusion of the study including:

1. improve marketing strategies to increase awareness of the program and attract a variety of employers across different occupational sectors and industries;
2. build stronger communication channels among the key partners;
3. maintain a strong presence of leadership;
4. use multiple staff agencies to maintain a diverse employer pool and diversity the type of placements available; and
5. offer more customized assistance and instruction to ensure participants are adequately prepared for placements.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2015
• Author(s): Dixon,Tara; Bryan, Shenee; Patterson, Amirah; Williams, Leslie; Lewis, Bridget; Ballentine, Jennifer
• Funding Source: U.S. Department of Labor
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Placido Gomez
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies