Equitable Capacity Building: Organizational Learning & Equitable Evaluation

West Philadelphia Skills Initiative (WPSI)
Funder: University City District
Project Time Period: 2019-2020

Project Category: Workforce Development/Evaluation and Performance Measurement Capacity Building

About WPSI: Since 2011, the West Philadelphia Skills Initiative (WPSI) has been connecting West Philadelphia’s employers seeking talent to West Philadelphians seeking opportunity. The Skills Initiative - operated by University City District, an economic development organization in West Philadelphia - is an employer-driven job training program that has redefined how effective workforce development programming can transform people’s lives.

The Work: MAI and ImpactED partnered on the evaluation of WPSI to help University City District garner a better understanding of how variations in participant outcomes (e.g., employment status) are related to different variations of the WPSI curriculum/services offered. The work consisted of analyzing existing WPSI Salesforce data through retrospective and prospective analysis (new pre-post survey data). The retrospective analysis provided data on outcomes gathered in the past, such as getting and keeping a job. The prospective analysis included additional variables of interest identified in the logic model ImpactED and MAI worked with WPSI to develop.