Significant Accomplishments
Strong job-retention rate
Our overall job-retention rate is well above industry standards. According to Jeff Thompson, former performance analyst with the Workforce Development Board, now with the Oregon Center for Public Policy, a 70% job-retention rate at 90 days is considered good by Department of Labor standards. Better People's rate is 78% so far, and this rate has been accomplished despite the fact that our clients are considered "hard to serve."
Our rate has been achieved without significant staff time allocated for retention and may largely be due to the effectiveness of Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT), the cognitive-behavioral therapy we use. We have now brought on a fourth staff person, Berry Scheib, and have one staff person solely focusing on job-retention as of February, 1999. We anticipate this will make job-retention even better and put us on track to achieving our ambitious goal of a 70% job-retention rate at one year.
Business customers have had good experiences
Another significant accomplishment is that 14 of the 15 direct placements are still employed. What this means is that almost all of the companies, wherein we directly arranged the interview, are well satisfied with our service. This satisfaction means they will be likely to continue hiring from us and may begin to see all ex-offenders generally as a potential source of reliable talent.
Overall average wage of $8.78/hr. $10.00/hr. for direct placements
Program Results
Notes on chart
Enter MRT means the client paid the one-time $25 enrollment fee was paid and client attended at least one MRT session. Referral agencies often pay part of the enrollment fee, but all Better People clients must pay something, even if it is only $1. It gives them a stake in the process; makes success more likely; and makes it feel more like a business transaction and less like charity.
Step 3 is the MRT step where clients become eligible to be placed in permanent, full time jobs that pay a minimum of $8/hr. plus health benefits. The Step 3 benchmark is analogous to what other agencies consider "job ready." Step 3 is the step where behavior falls in line with talk. It takes an average of three to four weeks for clients to pass Step 3. Better People refers clients to our partner temporary employment agencies so that they can make some income while they work toward Step 3.
n/a -- No clients have been employed long enough to have a 365-day
job retention anniversary because Better People opened only one year ago.
Out of 40 placements since our opening June 15, 1998, 22 have had 180 days
pass since their job start date. Thus only those 22 are considered in the
180 day job-retention rate. Nine of the 22 placements were direct placements.
Eight of nine of these direct placements (i.e.- we arranged the interview),
or 89%, were still employed. The numbers are less promising for indirect
placements. Five of 13 indirect placements (39%) where still employed at
180 days.
Room for Improvement?
Here are the areas we would like to improve upon:
Increase proportion of direct placements to indirect placements. Currently, 23 placements have been indirect and 16 have been direct. We are proud of playing a role, through MRT, in enabling clients to take charge of their lives, and secure their own jobs. Nonethless, we are concerned that about half of indirect placements were below our $8/hr. standard. We must work harder to open doors of opportunity to Portland's decent, well paying companies.
Place an average of seven people per month.
Reduce dropout rate. As of March 30, 1999, 28 clients dropped out of Better People after completing Step 3 of MRT, the step where they become eligible for placement. We feel this is largely due to the fact that we were not able to place them as quickly as the clients would have liked. Our Marketer, the staff person who focuses on job placement, now meets with clients after they reach Step 2, so that he can be better prepared when the client becomes eligible for placement upon reaching Step 3. The dropout rate has reduced significantly since clients had to enter through the waiting list beginning in January.
Recidivism Evaluation Plan: Portland State and Pacific
Universities.
The Better People business plan states that the organization will "use
only the most rigorous standards possible in analyzing [Better People's
effect] on recidivism (the rate at which offenders return to crime),"
so that its results would be unquestionable. These unquestionable results
would in turn begin to change the public's perception that "nothing
works" in reducing recidivism and perhaps lessen the view that the
only option for reducing crime is to build more prisons.
With that goal in mind, Better People devised an evaluation concept paper. In this evaluation, the Santiam Correctional Center would be a point of random assignment wherein one group of inmates would be randomly referred to Better People, while a control group of similar inmates would be randomly referred to another agency or no agency at all. Recidivism rates of the two groups would be compared. Better People envisioned paying inmates $150 for participation in the study to lessen the ethical conflict of denying service to the control group.
After devising this evaluation concept, Better People enlisted the help of Jay Thomas, Ph.D. of Pacific University's psychology department. Dr. Thomas joined Nella Lee, Ph.D. of Portland State University's Administration of Justice program on our evaluation team. Dr. Thomas suggested, and Dr. Lee and Better People staff concurred, that a random assignment experiment would be premature this early in our history. He believed the organization should take smaller steps first to see if any evidence existed that Better People reduced recidivism before it embarked on a costly random assignment experiment-- an experiment which would raise ethical issues by denying services to the control group.
Based on the advice of Dr. Thomas and Dr. Lee, Better People is undertaking two evaluation projects in cooperation with Portland State and Pacific Universities. The first will provide preliminary recidivism data. The second will study the program's effect on moral reasoning, measure the program's quality through participant interviews and help determine the demographics and characteristics of offenders most likely to benefit from the Better People experience.
The Better People Mission
To dramatically reduce recidivism (offenders returning
to crime) in Multnomah County and other areas.
Better People Alumni Club's Mission
People recovering their lives, reaching out to help
others
