Drs. Skye N. Leedahl, Karen McCurdy, Nilton Porto, Sue K. Adams, Jessica MacLeod, and Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz
Along with students Maddy Green, Emma Pascuzzi, and Avery Beatty, the project team have evaluated a program to help low income adults improve their employment outcomes. The Genesis Center is leading The Greater Providence Healthcare Career Pathways partnership, which is part of the Governor’s Workforce Board (GWB) Real Jobs Rhode Island (Real Jobs RI) Initiative. The Genesis Center provides an array of services for low-income adults, including adult education and workforce development opportunities, while also supporting over 50 children in high quality early childhood education and care services. As part of the Real Jobs RI Initiative, the Genesis Center’s healthcare career trainees and the early learning center are receiving enhanced financial support in hopes that programmatic improvements will lead to higher rates of training completion, better employment outcomes, higher quality instruction, and increases in quality instruction and staff retention. The SSIREP research team conducted an evaluation of the Genesis Center’s Real Jobs RI partnership including: 1) an evaluation of the healthcare career pathways training and financial support, 2) an evaluation of the impact of resource allocation on the Genesis Child Development & Learning Center.