BTW 50+ Women’s Economic Stability Initiative Final Implementation Report

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.