Navigators in Social Service Delivery Settings: A Review of the Literature

The review examines the use of navigators across workforce development and related programs, including an exploration of the following programs: the Disability Program Navigator and the Disability Resource Coordinator, the Personal Navigator of the Demonstration to Maintain Independence and Employment, the Workforce Innovation Fund Housing and Employment Navigator Program, Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training College and Career Navigator, the Single Stop Coordinator, the Trade Adjustment Assistance Navigator, and the Affordable Care Act Navigator.

Service navigators provide information about supports and services within complex systems to help individuals or families navigate them. Navigators may offer viable solutions to program access challenges by coordinating services, increasing knowledge via education, and even promoting systems change efforts that reduce barriers to access and make service delivery more welcoming to targeted populations. The use of navigators emerged in patient care in the early 1990s and has since expanded to workforce development, education, and social services programs.

This report is a literature review that covers reports and studies published between 2010 and 2021 and provides bibliographic references for additional research. The assessment of the programs shows that navigator activities can be grouped into seven categories:

1. Recruitment and uptake.
2. Engagement.
3. Direct service.
4. Referral and direction.
5. Partner and system coordination.
6. Policy improvement.
7. Capacity building.

Each program described in the review emphasizes a different combination of these roles and responsibilities for its navigators.

(This report is 28 pages long).

Key findings include:

1. Navigators serve both participant-facing and system-facing roles, depending on the specific program. Participant-facing activities incorporate a wide variety of direct service functions, including making referrals, coaching recipients, and providing case management services. System-facing activities are internal to the program, including addressing policies and procedures that could create barriers for users, cultivating closer and more effective inter-system partnerships, leading teams, and providing capacity development and knowledge to those who perform the service delivery.
2. Navigator activities can be grouped into seven areas: recruitment and uptake, engagement, direct service, referral and direction, partner and system coordination, policy and procedural improvement, and capacity building.
3. Five causal studies included in the review indicated that programs offering navigator support had mixed to positive impacts on participant outcomes. In postsecondary education, participants receiving navigator services and more direct contact with their navigators had higher semester-to-semester persistence and higher weighted grade point averages. In workforce programs, navigator services were associated with higher employment rates and a higher likelihood of receiving federal disability benefits but had limited or no impact on earnings or housing stability.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2022
• Author(s): Biase, C., Mochel, M.
• Funding Source: U.S. Department of Labor
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Burak Yuksel
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies