Evaluation Report Brief

Youthprise: Opportunity Reboot

Office of Research and Evaluation, Corporation for National and Community Service August 2020

nationalservice.gov/research 1 

What is the community challenge? 

A large number of young people are disconnected from work and school

or isolated from family. An estimated one in nine youth ages 16 to 24 are 

out of school and work in the US. These “opportunity youth” often face a 

range of complex issues, such as homelessness, chemical dependency, 

mental health issues, learning disabilities, and health disparities 

perpetrated by a range of systemic issues. Minnesota has more than 

40,000 opportunity youth, and the state also bears the largest educational 

achievement gap in the nation for both racial and economic disparities.

What is the promising solution?

The Opportunity Reboot model supports organizations in creating a 

cohesive web of supports for opportunity youth that provides access to 

important health, education, and employment resources as well as spaces 

where these young adults’ strengths are seen and leveraged. 

Youthprise developed a technical assistance and program enhancement 

model designed to leverage the existing capacity and strengths of 

community programs to more effectively create pathways to education, 

career, and life success for opportunity youth. Opportunity Reboot expands services and integrates an 

intentional, systemic focus on four model features that have been empirically linked to educational 

achievement and career development. These four core model features are: (a) positive mentoring relationships 

— including both relationships within and outside of community partner programs; (b) individualized goal 

supports; (c) coordinated career pathways supports; and, (d) impactful cross-sector partnerships. 

What was the purpose of evaluation?

The evaluation of Youthprise’s Opportunity Reboot Model by Search Institute began in 2015, with the 

reporting finishing in 2020. Youthprise used an implementation design, a preliminary impact design, and a 

quasi-experimental design (QED) to assess the fidelity of the Opportunity Reboot model’s implementation by 

subgrantees, as well as preliminary outcomes and impact on opportunity youth. The report describes an 

implementation evaluation that assessed the fidelity of the overall program model as it was implemented by 

six sub-grantees. An additional outcome study was aimed at showing preliminary evidence of effectiveness by 

collecting pre-post data from participants and assessing short-term outcomes, including building youth’s 

positive identity and social-emotional competencies as well as their ability to navigate complex systems. 

Analyses included paired t-tests and multiple regression models. Youthprise also conducted a qualitative 

impact study targeting participant experiences with the program, as well as a QED with propensity-score 

matching at the participant-level to assess medium-term outcomes, such as employment and securing a living 

wage. Descriptive statistics (average differences) and difference-in-difference model results were reported.

What did the evaluation find?

As a grantee of CNCS’ Social Innovation Fund, Youthprise engaged an independent evaluator to evaluate the 

Opportunity Reboot model. 

Program At-a-Glance

CNCS Program: Social Innovation Fund

Intervention: Opportunity Reboot

Subgrantees: Amherst H. Wilder; 

Guadalupe Alternative Programs (GAP);

Initiative Foundation/ Sauk Rapids Rice 

School District; MIGIZI Communications; 

Northfield Healthy Community Initiative; 

SOAR Career Solutions

Intermediary: Youthprise 

Focus Area: Youth Development 

Focus Population(s): Youth ages 14-24

Communities Served: Sauk Rapids, MN; 

St. Paul, MN; Minneapolis, MN; Duluth, 

MN; Northfield, MN; Faribault, MN; Red 

Wing, MN
Office of Research and Evaluation, Corporation for National and Community Service August 2020

nationalservice.gov/research 2 

The implementation evaluation found that: 

• All subgrantees implemented the Opportunity Reboot 

model with increasing fidelity over time. 

• Youth reported experiencing the Opportunity Reboot 

model features and were generally satisfied with the 

program.

The preliminary impact evaluation found that: 

• Youth participants experienced significant gains across a 

number of short-term outcomes, including positivity in 

the face of challenge, goal-setting skills, self-awareness, 

responsible decision-making, relationship skills, 

financial literacy, job-seeking skills, and resource 

identification skills. 

• Strong relationships with program staff and new mentoring relationships with adults outside of the 

program were core to the improved positive values, self-perceptions, and skills youth experienced, and 

had a transformative impact on the lives of opportunity youth. 

The QED impact evaluation with propensity score matching found that: 

• Opportunity Reboot participants were more likely than similar peers not participating in these 

programs to secure full-time employment over the period of a year (showing moderate evidence), and 

to avoid the seasonal dip in employment often seen during Minnesota’s winter months. This was 

particularly true for youth of color. 

• Very few opportunity youth (whether in the Opportunity Reboot or comparison groups) secured living 

wage employment and — although their wages did increase over time — they still fell below the statedefined threshold to support the costs of stable housing, food, and other basic necessities in the state of 

Minnesota. 

Notes on the evaluation

Due to congressional sunsetting of the Social Innovation Fund program, Youthprise was not able to 

sequentially conduct an implementation and an impact study, as planned. Instead, due to reduced funding 

and a protracted timeline, the grantee conducted both evaluations at the same time. 

How is Youthprise using the evaluation findings to improve?

The Opportunity Reboot Mapping Tool, the self-report instrument originally developed to track fidelity and 

model alignment, will be routinely administered with future partners to promote ongoing dialogue about 

integration of the model into existing programming. A larger suite of mentoring-focused trainings for 

community partners will be developed, possibly including new trauma-informed mentoring training and 

tapping into the learning opportunities available through the National MENTOR network. Youthprise is also 

in the process of releasing an Opportunity Reboot Toolkit for use by future partners. 

Evaluation At-a-Glance

Evaluation Design(s): Implementation Evaluation; 

Preliminary Impact Evaluation (single-group nonexperimental design, and qualitative narratives); 

QED with Propensity Score Matching

Study Population: Program staff, Youth aged 14-24

Independent Evaluators: Search Institute: Amy K. 

Syvertsen, Justin Roskopf, Chen-Yu Wu, Ashley 

Boat, Jenna Sethi, Rachel Chamberlain 

This Evaluation’s Level of Evidence*: Moderate

*SIF and AmeriCorps currently use different definitions of levels of evidence.

The Social Innovation Fund (SIF), a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), combines public and private resources to grow the impact of 

innovative, community-based solutions that have compelling evidence of improving the lives of people in low-income communities throughout the U.S. The SIF invests in three 

priority areas: economic opportunity, healthy futures, and youth development.

The content of this brief was drawn from the full evaluation report submitted to CNCS by the grantee/subgrantee. The section of the brief that discusses 

evaluation use includes contribution of the grantee/subgrantee. All original content from the report is attributable to its authors.

To access the full evaluation report and learn more about CNCS, please visit nationalservice.gov/research.