2. What has been the outcome of the featured cohort? Have they gone out and searched for jobs, were they hired, and did they keep the job?
Crystal: Of the 17 that got certificates 14 are currently employed. Thirteen of those have been employed for a long term, long term being more than 12 weeks. They were hired in various positions: Sears, Kmart, ShopCo, one person is working in a child center.
Many of them have kept the jobs for more than 12 weeks, but I think that this has to be looked at over a longer period of time. Is this just part of a cycle that they've become accustomed to being in, where they keep a job for 8-10 months or even a year, and then they go back on the rolls of welfare? We also need to look at are they now self-sufficient or are they still living with some kind of government benefit coming into them. So, yeah, I think the group has been very successful, but I think it will be in four or five years before we can know just how successful.
