Please note: this content is not actively maintained. Catholic Charities Community Services applied for a grant GiveWell offered in 2007, but did not receive the grant. The information below explains why.
Catholic Charities Community Services does not currently qualify for our highest ratings.
More information:
In a nutshell
We selected CCCS as a finalist because it submitted detailed data on job placement and retention. We think that having this sort of data available is necessary for an organization that wants to evaluate its own activities, learn from them, and improve; we also think that the willingness to share it shows a commitment to transparency. Therefore, knowing what we know, we'd recommend this organization over any non-finalist.
When we looked at the program and results alongside those of our other applicants, we saw that CCCS's relatively simple and brief job training program appears to have very high attrition, relative to a program like The HOPE Program (which serves a similar population). Although CCCS's costs are also lower, we don't have confidence that it is helping its clients significantly, relative to how they would do without its help, and so we do not give a full recommendation.
The details
Whom do they serve?
CCCS serves a population that we would guess has the most barriers to employment of any applicant's, based both on the fact that all are below the federal poverty line and on the high attrition in its programs (see below).
Selection. CCCS states, "The participants in our Adult Employment Program are Harlem residents referred to us directly by the New York City public assistance system, and we serve all who come through our doors" (Attachment A-2 Pg 2).
Characteristics.
- Ethnicity: predominantly African-American and Latin-American (Attachment A-2 Pg 2).
- Income: Very low - all clients are below the federal poverty line (Attachment A-4 Pg 1).
- GED/HS degree: 30% (Attachment A-2 Pg 2).
- In shelter/halfway house: unclear, but 50-60% are "homeless" (Attachment A-2 Pg 2)
- Substance abuse issues: "20% have a substance abuse problem" (Attachment A-2 Pg 2)
What do they do?
CCCS runs a relatively stripped-down job training program: 8 hours a day for 2 weeks, focusing on general job-related issues (resume writing, interview skills, conflict resolution) rather than any particular vocation (Attachment A-2 Pg 3).
What are the results?
The following information is from Attachment A-4 Pgs 1-3.
| Class | Enrollees | Graduates | Placed | 3m job retention | 6m job retention | Average hourly wage |
|---|
| 2006 | 811 | 777 | 158 | 86 | 34 | 8.78 |
| 2007 | 935 | 589 | 125 | 81 | 30 | 9.63 |
Over two years, only 64 of CCCS's clients seem to have obtained jobs that they retained for 6 months - out of 1366 enrollees. Given the high level of attrition between 3-month and 6-month retention, we'd guess that 12-month retention was even lower.
We have little information about the jobs that graduates end up taking, but the average salaries are comparable to those of HOPE Program graduates.
With fewer than 5% of enrollees ending up sustainably employed over the last two years, we're inclined to attribute the successes much more to the individuals than to the program itself.
What does it cost?
CCCS puts the total cost of the Adult Employment Program at $512,946 for the most recent year, including an allowance for organizational overhead (Attachment A-2 Pg 4-5). That comes out to about about $600 per enrollee, and about $17,000 per person placed for 6 months or more (ignoring the fact that some of these people may have been able to get jobs without CCCS's help).
Conclusion
We are not confident that these results indicate a significant effect above and beyond what would have happened without CCCS's help. For this reason, we do not find CCCS to be one of our very strongest applicants, and we have abbreviated our writeup of it.
That said, we approve of CCCS's ability and willingness to share its results, and we hope that this attitude results in a continually improving program.
We'd like to know more about:
We'd like more information on the population CCCS serves - in particular, whether a similar group of people, without help, would be likely to achieve the results described above. Without this information, we remain unconvinced of a strong program effect from CCCS's Adult Employment Program.
Attachments
A. Application and response
D. Financials
The audit we were sent is available in hard copy only. Form 990s are available from GuideStar.
