The Effects of Summer Employment on Disadvantaged Youth: Experimental Evidence

Summary

Chicago's Department of Family and Support Services will be providing summer employment and social-emotional skill training to youth over the summer of 2012. The investigators are partnering with them to evaluate the effects of the program. The investigators will track applicants to the program through existing administrative databases to assess the short- and long-term effects of the government's program. The investigators hypothesize that the program will decrease violence involvement and criminal activity, increase schooling engagement, and increase future employment outcomes.

Conditions

• Reduce Violence and Crime
• Increase School Engagement
• Increase Future Labor Market Outcomes

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Employment

Community organizations will place youth in summer jobs based on youth interests and the availability of positions. Jobs will be part-time in non-profit and government organizations. Youth will be paid the IL minimum wage of $8.25 per hour. The community organizations will provide job mentors to assist youth with barriers to work like transportation or clothing, and to provide supervision at the job site.

BEHAVIORAL

Social-Emotional Learning

Community organizations will provide 2 hours of social-emotional learning programming for 5 hours a day. The programming is based on cognitive behavioral therapy principles designed to help youth learn to understand and manage their emotions and behavior. It seeks to teach: self awareness (recognizing one's emotions and values as well as one's strengths and limitations), self management (managing emotions and behaviors to achieve one's goals), social awareness (showing understanding and empathy for others), relationship skills (forming positive relationships, working in teams, and dealing effectively with conflict), and responsible decision-making (making ethical, constructive choices about personal and social behavior).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• City of Chicago Department of Family and Support Services

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Cook County Office of the President

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Walmart

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• University of Chicago

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Harold Pollack, PhD · University of Chicago

• Sara Heller, MPP · University of Chicago

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

14 Years

Max Age

21 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2012-06-30

Primary Completion

2016-06-30

Completion

2018-12-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations