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- Published: Wednesday, 22 January 2020 10:53
Bridge Housing’s Bridge to Work jobs program, developed and delivered in partnership with CoAct disability employment provider, has achieved outstanding results during its 15-month pilot phase.
The pilot, which began in July 2018 and ended in September 2019, has been formally evaluated by independent experts Inca Consulting. pdf Read their evaluation report (1.90 MB) . They found that by the end of the pilot, 80 people were engaged by the program. Of these:
- 39% were placed in employment
- 9% returned to full time study
- 10% were currently interviewing for jobs at the end of the pilot
- 37% exited the program without a placement
- 5% were still active in the program but had not gained employment.
Importantly, Bridge to Work’s intensive case management approach also:
- achieved much better results in placing participants than did a control cohort: nearly twice as many Bridge to Work participants were placed/returned to study
- on average, placed participants in less than half the time as participants in the control group (12 weeks compared with 26 weeks)
- achieved significantly better results in terms of sustainedemployment
- was particularly successful in placing women and people with a disability in employment. People from a CALD background, mature age candidates and carers also benefited.
Sustainable Communities Manager Sarah Barclay is delighted with the evaluation findings. “The outcomes in terms of job placement and study uptake are wonderful in themselves. But our residents who participated in Bridge to Work also highly valued the program; it improved their confidence, self-agency, resilience, understanding of the job seeking process, and developed their job seeking skills.”
An important feature of program design was to embed the Employment Services Coordinator role within the housing provider. Housing managers are a key source of referrals and being seamlessly embedded at Bridge Housing has provided the ESC with a ‘foot in the door’ for people who otherwise may not engage with an employment service.
Bridge to Work will continue into 2020. Learn more about the program.