Hire Up Harris

Project Description

Hire Up Harris supports comprehensive approaches to workforce development characterized by training complemented by soft skills development, professional skills development, and wraparound services. The goals of this program include the promotion of skills training and wraparound support services that can lift target populations — underemployed, unemployed, dislocated workers, opportunity youth, people of color, women, and those without college degrees — from poverty and economic insecurity. Harris County also seeks to build capacity among organizations that provide workforce training. Importantly, this program aims to support programming that includes wraparound support services that increase apprenticeship program completion, placement rates, and retention rates.

Hire Up Harris is administered by two subrecipient vendors, Wesley Community Center and Volunteers of America Texas.

PRIMARY PARTNERSHIPS

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Subrecipient vendors have developed outreach strategies to complement their ongoing referral systems. These strategies include:

  • Hiring additional staff
  • Intensive client outreach with community-based organizations (CBOs)
  • Continued intensive outreach to employer partners as potential employers for training graduates

TARGET IMPACT

Targeted KPIs for the program include:

  • Number of individuals enrolled in training
  • Number of individuals who completed training
  • Number of individuals who received wraparound assistance

WEBSITE LINK

USE OF EVIDENCE & PROGRAM EVALUATIONS

Harris County has partnered with Elite Research to pursue a comprehensive program evaluation for Hire Up Harris. The goals of the evaluation are:

  • To understand how effective and equitable the Hire Up Harris program is in supporting unemployed and underemployed individuals and their families who were affected by COVID-19 in achieving upward mobility.
  • To understand how effective and equitable the Hire Up Harris program is in creating access to opportunities, both training and soft/professional skills, for the unemployed, underemployed, dislocated workers, opportunity youth, people of color, women and those without college degrees who were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.
  • To understand how effective the wraparound support services are in increasing program completion, placement, and retention rates.

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