The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 authorized Youth Opportunity Grants (YO), a $1 billion, 5-year program aimed at increasing the educational attainment and long-term employment of youth residing in high poverty areas. The program was designed to assist at-risk, hard-to- serve youth and the communities in which they live by concentrating resources into a targeted geographic area. YO expanded on earlier demonstration programs that were based on a similar design, the most recent of which were known as Kulick grants. The Department of Labor (the Department) announced the 36 YO grantees—24 urban, 6 rural, and 6 Native American—in February 2000 and set a goal for the grantees to have their programs operational by September of that year. Although the Department originally planned to continue to add grantees, funding for the program was eliminated in the budget for fiscal year 2004. Figure 1 shows the 36 grantees by location. The Department of Labor’s stated goals for the YO program were to increase educational attainment and promote long-term employment of youth in the target areas, as well as to improve the youth service delivery systems in these communities. Specifically, grantees were expected to effect increases in the rates of high school completion, college enrollment, and employment, both for youth participating in the program and, by extension, the overall target area. Grantees were also expected to facilitate the delivery of services by partnering with other institutions in the community, especially local schools and colleges, the juvenile justice system, and private employers. The program was designed to allow grantees to enhance the local infrastructure of youth services by filling in critical service gaps, coordinating existing services, and, in the case of some rural and tribal areas, developing an infrastructure where services were limited. Many of the YO program components were based on practices that experts have identified as effective for working with at-risk youth, and the design of the program supported flexibility and invention at the local level. Based on a youth development framework that emphasizes a comprehensive approach to meeting a young person’s needs, the program required YO grantees to offer a full range of education, employment, and leadership development services as well as provide other supports to the youth. Advocates and experts have also stressed that youth need a place to gather where they feel comfortable and a sense of belonging. In this vein, YO grantees were required to have at least one youth center in the target community that would provide a focal point for services and activities as well as a safe place for the youth to go. In addition, grantees were expected to maintain a core staff of trained youth workers and to provide follow up services to participants for at least 2 years after they completed participation in program activities, which is in keeping with the identified effective practice of providing youth access to a caring, trusted adult for an extended period of time. Additionally, experts have suggested youth benefit from the opportunity to continue a relationship with a program for as long as they need. Similarly, the program had flexible enrollment rules that allowed participants to remain enrolled even through periods of inactivity. However, the program design allowed grantees latitude in deciding many of the particulars of the program. For example, grantees could choose how and by whom services would be delivered, the number and location of the YO centers, and the institutions with which they partnered. Figure 2 displays the key components of Youth Opportunity Grant program. Like some prior demonstration programs that the Department of Labor has administered, eligibility for YO was not based on income, but rather on geographic residence. Youth between the ages of 14 and 21 living in the target area were eligible for the program, regardless of income. In most cases, the target areas were federally designated empowerment zones or enterprise communities, which are, by definition, areas with high rates of poverty. The Department of Labor provided extensive, ongoing technical assistance to grantees. The Department assigned grantees coaches with considerable experience working in youth programs who helped grantees with a range of issues, such as developing services and building partnerships. The Department also collaborated with a private foundation to establish a training institute that provided courses in youth development to more than 2,000 youth workers. In addition, the Department sponsored opportunities for grantees to share best practices and strategies in regular directors’ meetings and conference calls and through peer-to-peer training sessions. The Department laid the foundation for collecting performance data on the program by setting up a management information system (MIS). The Department collected performance data on the YO program in a centralized, electronic system. Grantees submitted information to fulfill requirements of the Workforce Investment Act, which mandated that grantees report on seven performance measures related to employment, retention, earnings, attainment of skills, and attainment of credentials. In addition to these, grantees reported on interim measures developed by the Department to gauge the progress of participants as they moved through the program. These measures were designed to document youth participation in activities and other intermediate milestones. The Department had funded several prior programs premised on a geographic and community concept similar to that of the YO, although on a much smaller scale, but little information is available on the impact of these demonstration programs. Although evaluations were conducted of these earlier programs, the impact studies were either incomplete or not released. The first of these demonstrations, Youth Opportunities Unlimited, was evaluated and the results published, but the study did not include a systematic analysis of impact based on comparison groups. The funding for the second demonstration, Youth Fair Chance, was cut 2 years into the program, and although the evaluation study was published, it was based on only 2 of the planned 5 years of the program. As a result, the authors of this study advised that the findings should be interpreted cautiously. The most recent of the demonstration programs was known as the Kulick grants. The Department has prepared an evaluation of the Kulick grants, but has not yet released the results publicly. For the Youth Opportunity Grants, the Department set up an extensive effort in 2000 to collect and analyze information to assess the program’s impact. The Department contracted for a $24 million evaluation study that included plans to estimate the impact of the program by comparing key characteristics in the YO communities and comparable areas that did not receive YO grants. It was to begin in 2000, and the final report was originally scheduled to be completed in July 2005. The study was designed to differentiate between those observed changes in participants and the communities that resulted from the program and those that would have occurred even without the program’s intervention. Grantees adapted key elements of the program’s design to their particular circumstances and used a variety of approaches in providing services and conducting outreach. Grantees set up centers that varied widely in terms of number and other characteristics where youth could receive services and participate in activities. The centers housed a core staff who provided case management and helped plan individualized services for youth. Staff numbers and duties differed between grantees. Most grantees used the management information system (MIS) provided by the Department of Labor to submit program data to the Department, but some used their own systems. Most grantees used a combination of approaches to provide youth services, including collaborating with other organizations and, when they deemed it necessary, developing services of their own. To reach hard- to-serve target population, grantees used a variety of recruiting techniques, ranging from the conventional to the innovative. The centers set up under the terms of the grant varied widely in number and character. Because the target communities varied in size, some grantees had 1 center while other, more geographically dispersed grantees had as many as 40. The centers were intended to serve as the hub of the local programs, and the types of activities offered in them differed considerably. One center we visited in rural Louisiana had a variety of recreational facilities, such as a basketball court and recreation room, in addition to a classroom, computer lab, and staff offices. Youth participating in this program told us nothing like these facilities had existed for them before the YO program. On the other hand, a center we visited in Houston resembled a traditional career center, with computer kiosks set up near staff offices where the youth could undertake job searches and skills assessments. Houston officials said they had formerly offered some recreational activities on site, but found them to be duplicative of other services available in the neighborhood. Some grantees provided still other facilities at their centers. For example, Baltimore had an on-site health clinic and music recording studio. Some grantees also had centers located within schools. The District of Columbia had staff sited in a local high school, where they offered training and support for youth. This in-school center was located in a large classroom, with a staff office off to one side and furnished with a computer lab with equipment purchased by the grantee. Figure 3 depicts photos of two youth opportunity grant centers we visited. The centers housed staff who varied substantially in number and makeup. Houston divided staff duties between as many as 115 people working in 4 centers. In this program, “personal service representatives” provided case management and identified youths’ goals and training needs, and “employment counselors” assisted youth with job searches and conducted follow-up services to youth who had been placed in employment. Other grantees, however, had sites with only one person performing all of the major staff duties. At the California Indian Manpower Consortium (CIMC) Manchester Point Arena site, one youth worker handled recruitment, case management, and job placement. Because of the remoteness of the site, this youth worker also frequently drove a van, weekly transporting youth to services as far as 4 hours away. Most grantees used the management information system (MIS) provided by the Department of Labor to record program data, but some used their own systems and then submitted the data to the Department. Those who did not use the Department MIS used a variety of systems. For example, Milwaukee developed its own system with the aim of using it in conjunction with other youth programs offered by its local Workforce Investment Board.