In a nutshell
What they do: Covenant works with disconnected youth (not employed or in school), and its work-related programs (which we focused on) aim to place these youth in relatively low-skill jobs.
Does it work? We don't have enough information to say, with high confidence, that Covenant's clients do significantly better than they would without its help. We cannot go into details, due to confidentiality requests.
What do you get for your dollar? We can't say, as Covenant's budget information is confidential.
Where they rank: We do not recommend Covenant above our other finalists.
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The Details
Table of Contents
Whom do they serve?
Covenant serves "disconnected youth" (ages 17-21, neither employed nor in school); their population appears to be extremely disadvantaged, more so than that of an organization like Year Up. Details follow.
Selection. Covenant serves "disconnected youth" (ages 17-21, neither employed nor in school – see Attachment A-2 Pg 2 – although the Nurse's Aide program described on Attachment A-4 Pg 1 appears to serve 18-22 year olds); beyond that, its requirements vary by program. The Nurse's Aide and Bank Teller programs are the most selective, requiring a high school degree or GED and no criminal record (Attachment A-4 Pg 1). Customer Service applicants also must have a high school degree or GED (or be enrolled in a GED program), and Security Guard applicants must have no criminal record; all other programs (Culinary Arts, Computer Skills, GED, Job Readiness) are apparently open to everyone within the age range (Attachment A-4 Pg 1).
Characteristics. Covenant states that its clients have the following characteristics (Attachment A-2 Pg 2):
- Ethnicity: predominantly African-American and Latin-American (Attachment A-4 Pg 1)
- GED/HS degree: unclear, but "more than half have dropped out of school by the tenth grade" (Attachment A-2 Pg 2)
- Homeless (residents at a Covenant House shelter): 54% (Attachment A-4 Pg 1)
What do they do?
Skills Training
Note: Attachment A-2 refers to Skills Training programs, whereas Attachment A-4 refers to Job Training programs, but these appear to mean the same thing, as Attachment A-4 clearly distinguishes between Job Training and Job Readiness (see the last paragraph of Pg 2).
Skills Training programs prepare people for specific vocations, and we focus on them here since we have stronger outcomes data on these programs than on others. All of the following data is from Attachment A-4 Pg 1.
| Program | Ages | Requirements | Duration | Hours/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nurse's aid | 18-22 | HS/GED; no criminal record | 3 months | 6 |
| Bank teller | 17-21 | HS/GED; no criminal record | 4 weeks | 6 |
| Security guard | 18-21 | No criminal record | 2 weeks | 6 |
| Culinary arts | 18-21 | - | 4 months | 6 |
| Microsoft Office specialist | 17-21 | - | 6 wks + 1-3 month internship | 6 |
| Customer service | 17-21 | HS/GED | 4 wks + 1 month internship | 6 |
Other programs
Covenant House offers a one-week Job Readiness program; pre-GED and GED programs; and a scholarship program (see Attachment A-4 Pgs 1-2). We are very unclear on the details of these programs and have no information on outcomes for clients, so we focus on Skills Training.
What are the results?
Covenant requested that internal reports and budget information be kept confidential, so we cannot discuss its outcomes or costs. Having seen what we've seen, we do not have strong confidence that Covenant House is making a strong impact above and beyond how its clients would do otherwise.
Conclusion
We don't have strong confidence that Covenant House is making a significant impact, beyond how its applicants would do otherwise.
We'd like to know more about:
- Outcomes data. Our outcomes data is very limited, particularly outside of the Skills Training programs.
- Wage distribution. What portion of Covenant graduates earn more than $10/hr? $15/hr?
- Training curriculum. We have a general overview, but we'd like to see the syllabus, formal layout, etc. to get a better sense of what clients are being trained to do and how they're being trained to do it.
- Definitions. How does Covenant define "placement" and "retention"? Does it include part-time jobs?
Attachments
A. Application and response
- Attachment A-1: Application - Round 1
- Attachment A-2: Response - Round 1
- Attachment A-3: Application - Round 2
- Attachment A-4: Response - Round 2
B. Program related attachments
-
Covenant House requested that internal reports be kept confidential.
C. Organization related attachments
The attachments we were sent are available in hard copy only.
D. Financials
The audit we were sent is available in hard copy only. Form 990s are available from GuideStar.
