A Two-Generational Child-Focused Program Enhanced with Employment Services

Children living in poverty face considerable developmental risks. This report presents interim results from an evaluation of parental employment and educational services delivered within a two-generational, early childhood program targeting low-income families who are expecting a child or who have a child under age 3. This study is part of the Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation project, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, with additional funding from the U.S. Department of Labor. The program model tested here aims to dually address both the employment and educational needs of parents who are at risk of unemployment and the developmental needs of their young children. The program’s effects are being studied by examining 610 families who were randomly assigned to a program group, which received the enhanced two-generational program, or to a control group, which could only access alternative services in the community