| Principal Investigator: | Heath J. Prince, PhD |
| Sponsor: | Corporation for a Skilled Workforce |
| Project Duration: | June 2020 – December 2021 |
| Description: | With assistance from the California Workforce Association (CWA), the Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW) and the Ray Marshall Center (RMC) of the University of Texas are partnering to evaluate the effectiveness of American Job Centers of California (AJCC) system using a mixed-methods and multi-part research design to achieve the objectives below:
– To understand how the four different models of service delivery in use in California affect a) overall access to services and, more importantly, b) the mix of services provided to the client population served. – To understand how investment decisions pertaining to AJCC infrastructure, staffing levels, and number of locations affect a) overall access to services and, more importantly b) the mix of services provided to the client population served. – To understand whether there is any relationship between participant program outcomes and the mix of services provided to the client population served. Do some models of service delivery and some types of investment decisions pertaining to AJCCs appear to be systematically related to participant program outcomes?
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| Reports Available: |
Dr. Prince pens op-ed on construction worker exploitation for Austin American-Statesman
RMC’s Director and Research Scientist Dr. Heath Prince recently wrote an op-ed in the Austin American-Statesmen titled “Worker exploitation in Texas’ throwaway culture” published December 13, 2020. The piece touches on the exploitation of the construction workers, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. You can read the article here.
RMC’s Chris King co-authors Medium article about workforce policy post-COVID-19
RMC’s Senior Research Scientist Dr. Chris King and Corporation for a Skilled Workforce‘s President and CEO Larry Good co-authored an article “Rethinking Workforce Policy During the COVID-19 Recovery” for Medium published on June 16, 2020. The article focuses on missed opportunities pre-pandemic, preparations for the next crisis, and what future workforce policy should entail post-pandemic. Chris is also CSWs Board Chair and has worked closely with them for many years.
Belmont Forum Collaborative Research: Protection Resilience Efficiency and Prevention for Workers in Industrial Agriculture in Changing Climate
| Principal Investigator: | Heath J. Prince, PhD |
| Sponsor: | National Science Foundation, Belmont Forum |
| Consortium Lead: | University of Gothenburg, Sweden |
| Project Duration: | January 2020 – December 2022 |
| Description: | Chronic kidney disease of undetermined cause (CKDu), affects millions of workers in Latin America and Asia. Treatment is expensive, resulting in early death for those affected. Strenuous work in extreme heat without sufficient rest and hydration is considered a main driver. Industrial agriculture is the most affected, especially the sugarcane sector. Without prevention, this epidemic is likely to accelerate due to climate change. Increasing temperatures, coupled with decreasing precipitation in drier agricultural regions, is also causing pesticides and other toxins to concentrate at higher levels.
As a response to this heat stress related disease, we have collectively implemented the Adelante Initiative, a workplace intervention with focus on adequate water, and rest in shade together with improved ergonomics, designed to prevent CKDu among workers at a sugarcane mill in Nicaragua. Due to the high prevalence of CKDu among sugarcane workers, we are concentrating our efforts in this sector; from there we will adapt the program to other geographies and industries. Our proposed project builds on current efforts and investigates the following: 1) the immediate and long-term impact the intervention has on workforce health (kidney health and heat related injuries) and productivity; 2) the economic and social impacts on those affected by the disease and whether our intervention aids in resilience, including mitigating migration pressures; 3) the economic burden on health systems treating CKDu; and 4) an analysis of public health policies to understand what policies, or absence of policy, have contributed to the disease while investigating what policies are required to effectively address it. The knowledge gained will create the groundwork to expand to other sugarcane mills and eventually other industries at-risk for heat stress and CKDu. As climate change means more extreme temperatures in already impacted regions, and the likelihood that regions further north and south of the equator will also be impacted by CKDu, it is essential a model to protect worker health and productivity is developed. |
| Reports Available: | A Measure of the Return on Ingenio San Antonio’s Investment in the Adelante Initiative: An Initial Estimate of Costs and Benefits of a Water, Rest, and Shade Intervention Author: Heath Prince, PhD Date: May 2020 Publication Type: Report, 7 pp. Prepared for the La Isla Network, with funding from the Deutsche Investitions und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG) The Economic Impact of CKDnt on Households: Survey Findings from a Pilot Study of a Workers’ Association, Asochivida, and of the Communities of La Isla, Manhattan, and Candalaria, Nicaragua |
RMC Director contributes to Time article on how COVID-19 will shape the Class of 2020
RMC Director and Research Scientist Dr. Heath Prince weighs in on the conversation about youth unemployment in a post-Virus America in an article by Charlotte Alter titled “How COVID-19 Will Shape the Class of 2020 For the Rest of Their Lives” published on May 21, 2020 in TIME. You can read the article here.
RMC’s Chris King featured in UT News article discussing impact of COVID-19
HPOG Secondary Data Analysis
| Principal Investigator: | Christopher T. King, PhD |
| Sponsor: | Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation |
| Project Duration: | December 2019 – December 2021 |
| Description: | The Ray Marshall Center will evaluate the variation in program characteristics – including program components, implementation features, local context, and participant traits – to explore which characteristics are associated with Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) program participant’s healthcare profession career pathway outcomes. This research will address the following questions:
Similar to the previous research on the impact of HPOG program characteristics on educational achievement (Peck et al., 2018 and Walton et al., 2019), this research expects to identify supports such as childcare and transportation assistance, tuition, and other financial assistance, as well as employment supports and emergency assistance associated with CNA participant achievements along a career pathway. Practitioners, policymakers, funders, and researchers may be interested in which combination of program components, implementation strategies, participant characteristics, and local context may impact a CNA participant to pursue the next step along a healthcare profession career pathway. Insights from this research can inform future program design and implementation within the broader field of entry level healthcare provider workforce development. |
| Reports Available: |
RMC Associate Director contributes to Statesman article exploring uncertain future for college-bound high school seniors
RMC Associate Director and Research Associate Dr. Greg Cumpton was interviewed for an article “Overwhelmed and facing an uncertain future, high school seniors prepare for college” by Lara Korte published on 4/17/20 in the Austin American-Statesmen. You can read the article here.
Chris King presents at ILO Centenary Workshop
Senior Research Scientist Dr. Chris King was invited to present research at the International Labour Organization‘s Centenary Workshop “Debating the Future of Work: Challenges and Prospects” in Sheffield, England on May 28-29, 2019. On the second day of the workshop, he will be joined by Jason Heyes (Centre for Decent Work, University of Sheffield, UK) and Ryuichi Yamakawa (Central Labour Relations Commission and University of Tokyo, Japan) to discuss Governance, Labour Administration, and Social Dialogue. Topics addressed in the presentation include:
- Changes in the world have created new challenges for labour adminstration bodies, such as labour inspectorates and public employment services.
- How have they responded to these challenges?
- How might labour administration be more effective?
- What role can social dialogue play in ensuring effective labour governance and inclusive economic growth?
The presentation was made possible with support from the ILO. It has benefited from discussions with colleague Burt Barnow from George Washington University and sources currently or formerly with the US Department of Labor.
L to R: Ludek Rychly (ILO program director), Burt Barnow, Jason Heyes, and Chris King
ASPIRE Program Impact Evaluation Services
| Principal Investigator: | Heath J. Prince PhD |
| Sponsor(s): | Decision Information Resources, Inc via BakerRipley |
| Project Duration: | January 2019 – June 2020 |
| Description: | BakerRipley (formerly Neighborhood Centers, Inc.) launched ASPIRE in early 2016 as a workforce development program designed to support underemployed workers in the Houston, Texas area to successfully move from low-wage jobs to living-wage, middle-skill jobs that provide financial stability and contribute to the region’s economic growth. Decision Information Resources, Inc. (DIR) is a Houston-based minority-owned research and evaluation firm that has been involved in evaluating workforce development programs over the full course of its 34-year history.
An impact evaluation of ASPIRE will focus on comparing outcomes for program participants with program non-participants in order to measure the effectiveness of program participation. BakerRipley indicates that the impact evaluation seeks to answer the broad research question: Are ASPIRE candidates’ lives better off? And if so, by how much? The specific questions to be addressed by this impact evaluation per the ASPIRE Evaluation Plan are:
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| Reports Available: |
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