Goal:

To help unemployed Californians regain employment and thereby put an end to the adverse health consequences that many workers experience as a result of unemployment.

Objectives:

• Select three sites in California to implement the Winning New Jobs program.
• Provide the WNJ intervention to a total of 6,500 unemployed California workers.
• Disseminate the WNJ model to other employment and training agencies whose clients can benefit from this intervention.

Accomplishments:

• Adaptation of the WNJ model to new populations and conditions in California. The WNJ model was developed in Michigan in the early 1980s for automotive workers who experienced layoffs as a result of the downturn in the industry. California has a diverse population facing different issues and concerns, and the WNJ sites selected for this program in Fresno, Los Angeles, and Silicon Valley successfully adapted the program to address local conditions and populations. For example, the protocol and workshops were translated and delivered in Spanish and were adapted to the needs of former gang members, prisoners on work furlough, high school students seeking summer employment, and people with different disabilities including AIDS.
• Provision of 455 WNJ workshops to 5,290 Californians at the three sites. The Winning New Jobs program was designed during a recession and implemented during a booming economy. Despite challenges recruiting participants (see below), the service goal for WNJ was exceeded. The characteristics of clients varied considerably among the three sites, but overall they were 37.8 percent Latino, 31.3 percent Caucasian, 13.1 percent African American, 10.6 percent Asian, 7.1 percent mixed race; 60 percent were female, the average age was 38 and nearly half held a high school degree or had fewer years of formal education (45 percent).
• Assistance placing 3,439 job-seekers in jobs of their chosen occupations. Due to the boom economy that absorbed record numbers of employees during the years of the Winning New Jobs implementation, the California sites served people who were considerably more disadvantaged than in the original Michigan sample. For example, California participants’ average time out of work before participating in Winning New Jobs was nearly 14 months, compared to two months in Michigan. Nonetheless, comparable percentages of California employees found work as in the original Michigan studies. Thirty days after the workshop, 36 percent of California participants had found work, a number that increased to 65 percent by six months. Most (62.5 percent) were in their chosen occupations and employed in full-time positions with health benefits.
• Protection of WNJ participants from adverse health and mental health consequences of unemployment. Pre- and post-studies of program participants conducted by program evaluators found that participants in the WNJ program reported gaining job-search self-efficacy, self-mastery and the ability to withstand setbacks. These are the same measures demonstrated in the original Michigan studies to buffer participants from adverse health and mental health consequences often resulting from job loss.
• Replication faithful to the original program. Replication of model programs is the focus of increasing attention as an important but little understood capacity in the world of social interventions. This replication provides important insights into how replications can be accomplished. Ingredients include intensive initial training, monthly telephone conferences, semi-annual conferences and site visits. All of these activities contributed to maintaining fidelity with the original program.
• Dissemination of the WNJ model to many California organizations. The lead grantee played a lead role in disseminating information about the WNJ program to employment audiences in California through conference presentations, a brochure and videotape. As an extension of these activities, 14 sites were trained to deliver the WNJ program. At the close of the Initiative, five of these agencies were actively running WNJ workshops, four had encountered temporary obstacles, and five sites were unable to implement the program. Approximately 10 other organizations that partnered with the original three sites were also conducting WNJ workshops.