Abstract

Esperanza Trabajando aimed to build capacity of 17 Hispanic faith-based and community based organizations for providing job training and development to adjudicated and at-risk youths in 10 regions of the US. Three areas of capacity were targeted by this project: organizational, service, and network capacity. Evaluation findings showed that organizational capacity increased significantly for all participants, with 70% registering organizational maturation and growth. Programmatic outcomes exceeded the federal benchmarks, with 91% of all clients receiving job training and/or remedial education; and 2,261 youth securing employment as a result of the project, of which 1,938 (86%) retained employment for more than 90 days. Client satisfaction findings indicated improvement of participant organizations’ service capacity (reported by 42% of the clients) specifically targeting adjudicated youths (67% reported a perceived improvement in specialized services). Community reinstatement, as a result of this project is also an indicator of success, with recidivism rates for ET participants being below 7%. This is significantly lower than national rates for similar population groups. Fifty-eight percent (58%) of all participant organizations considered that the ET project created visibility and credibility for them among other nonprofit organizations; 50% stated that they are now part of a better job development organizational network.