Performance and Planning Assessment of the Youth Apprenticeship Program, 1996

This report presents the Performance and Planning Assessment of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Youth Apprenticeship Program (YAP). The goal of YAP is to provide youth corps and joint labor-management supported training, apprenticeship, and employment to young residents (age 16 to 30) of public and subsidized housing. Roughly 500 to 600 young people are projected to participate in YAP over the five-year grant period; it is anticipated that approximately 300 will successfully complete the pre-employment training and enter an apprenticeship. In March 1995, HUD awarded grants of $1.178 million to $1.5 million to eight public housing authorities (PHAs) that had previously received grants under HUD's HOPE VI initiative. HOPE VI was created for the purpose of revitalizing severely distressed or obsolete public housing developments. In announcing YAP, HUD indicated it expected the initiative would demonstrate the importance of job training and assured employment to local neighborhood revitalization. Abt Associates staff conducted two- to three-day site visits to the YAP sites in November and December 1995, roughly nine months following grant awards, to document the planning and early implementation of the local programs. The text of this report presents a cross-site description and assessment of the programs' experience, and Appendix A presents site profiles of each program.