In an effort to learn more about workforce supports for system-involved young people, researchers from the Urban Institute identified programs that were using effective strategies to help system-involved individuals avoid detention or incarceration and find employment. 

The purpose of Urban’s study was to highlight examples of successful partnerships and effective partnership strategies involving community-based workforce service providers, public agencies, and stakeholders. We focus on those in the juvenile and adult legal systems and outline key funding approaches for community-based workforce supports, while also identifying the factors that hinder or promote access to public and private funding streams.

Gleaning from the study’s findings, this brief details the landscape of funding strategies and sources used by workforce programs, the blended funding approach and site-specific examples of what blending funding allows programs to do, and examples of how funders factor strategic planning and innovation into their funding decisions. We also offer recommendations and considerations for future policy and practice. 

This is one of four publications developed using findings from Urban Institute’s multiphase study on community-based workforce development programs for youth and young adults ages 16 to 24 involved in the criminal legal system. Other publications from this study are as follows:

• Bridging the Employment Gap for System-Involved Young People: Exploring the Impacts of Strategic Partnerships
• Bridging the Employment Gap for System-Involved Young People: Exploring the Impacts of Employer Relationships
• Maximizing Funding, Partnerships, and Workforce Supports for System-Involved Young People: Study Background, Methodology, and Overall Findings