JVS and Social Finance to Celebrate and Assess Project Outcomes in Economic Opportunity Forum

On Nov. 18, 2020, JVS is hosting an economic forum, “Pay for Success: Working Toward Economic Advancement,” to celebrate and assess preliminary results from a workforce collaboration with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and Social Finance.

In 2017, the three organizations launched the Massachusetts Pathways to Economic Advancement Project, a Pay for Success initiative to help 2,000 limited English speakers in Greater Boston make successful transitions to employment and higher-wage jobs.

A new study from Economic Mobility Corporation documents significant wage gains and job retention from the project’s English for Advancement (EfA) program, which engaged more than 1,000 residents in Boston, Lynn, Lowell, and Lawrence. The evaluation, which includes an ongoing randomized control trial, showed that EfA demonstrates a substantial impact on earnings in the second year after project enrollment.

During the Nov. 18th event, Massachusetts Secretary of Education Jim Peyser, Social Finance CEO Tracy Palandjian, Economic Mobility Corporation President Mark Elliot, and JVS President and CEO Jerry Rubin will review the study results, and discuss how JVS’ approach might be applied in other workforce development efforts.