MDRC

Founded in 1974, MDRC is a non-profit, nonpartisan policy research and evaluation organization dedicated to learning what works to enhance the effectiveness of social and educational policies and programs. MDRC is now widely viewed as a source of rigorous research in such diverse areas as early childhood education, public school reforms, employment programs for ex-prisoners and programs to help low-income populations to succeed in community colleges. This award supports the evaluation of the Youth-Led Tech (YLT) program, a summer technology training program for youths at-risk of violence involvement. Youth-Led Tech is operated by the Smart Chicago Collaborative, a civic organization devoted to improving lives in Chicago through technology, and is funded by Get IN Chicago, a civic and corporate-led group that funds anti-violence efforts in the city. MDRC will lead a team that will use a randomized-controlled trial design to measure the impact of Youth-Led Tech on a range of behavioral and education-related outcomes of participants.

MDRC is a non-profit, nonpartisan policy research and evaluation organization dedicated to learning what works to enhance the effectiveness of social and educational policies and programs. Since 2004, MDRC has led the evaluation of the New Communities Program, the Foundation-supported effort to help revitalize 16 low-income Chicago neighborhoods led by the Chicago office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). This grant funds MDRC’s evaluation of the effectiveness of the Program’s second phase, which seeks to demonstrate the power of a comprehensive community development approach to produce measurable improvements in key quality-of-life issues: housing, education, and violence prevention.

MDRC is a non-profit, nonpartisan education and social policy research organization dedicated to learning what works to improve programs and policies that affect low-income families. MDRC will develop a compelling new intervention model that builds on prior evidence and experience to improve work-related outcomes and economic security among housing voucher households. In this year-long planning exercise, the research team will confer with other housing and workforce experts, including researchers, practitioners, housing authority staff, HUD officials, and staff from other government agencies at the federal, state and local levels to develop a design for and evaluation of the intervention.

Founded in 1974, MDRC is a policy research and evaluation firm best known for pioneering the application of randomized controlled trials to improve social policies and programs affecting low-income populations. This grant supports a social network analysis as part of the MDRC-led evaluation of the New Communities Program, the Foundation’s principal community development strategy: research that will contribute to the Foundation’s and the field’s understanding of whether and how the New Communities Program’s investments in building stronger organizations and strengthening working relationships translate into more effective revitalization activities in the targeted Chicago neighborhoods.

As the Foundation explores the issue of high incarceration -- the large increase in imprisonment since the 1970s -- it is evident that there are knowledge gaps regarding the causes and consequences of incarceration and the most effective strategies for reducing incarceration while promoting public safety. MDRC, a social policy research organization that conducts significant work in education, family, health and employment policy, will use this grant to prepare a whitepaper that synthesizes research evidence on programs designed to help formerly-incarcerated people return to their communities.