….The Community Resource Center is one example of how workforce and health and human service organizations are responding to individuals’ multiple challenges at once. Unfortunately, multiservice delivery to those who are most in need is hard to implement and sustain, and its effectiveness is often not well understood.

To help address this issue and thus strengthen lower-income people’s connection to the broader economy, our team observed three examples of multiservice delivery providers over the past year to get some clues about what’s working….

….Towards Employment is another provider that is using the multiservice delivery model. The workforce development nonprofit, also based in Cleveland, partners with many organizations including the Greater Cleveland Food Bank and offers various services in addition to skills training. Jobseekers who come through the door have access to services like financial and mental health counseling, legal assistance, digital literacy classes, and career coaching that continues even after they are hired. Towards Employment CEO Jill Rizika continues to believe that career coaching in particular was — and is — a “key ingredient” to her clients’ success in moving up the career ladder.

Research by the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization MDRC backs this up, including an evaluation of the WorkAdvance program, which includes two sites in Northeast Ohio led by Towards Employment. The evaluation showed that, among workers who underwent training specific to sectors like healthcare and manufacturing, services like post-hire career coaching boosted their earnings growth four to eight years after they exited the WorkAdvance program. Additionally, MDRC’s cost–benefit analysis of the program showed a positive return on investment for individuals, government, and society.

Rizika acknowledges that, despite the broad range of services that Towards Employment offers, the organization still can’t adequately address additional challenges like childcare, affordable housing, transportation, or loss of benefits when income increases (the “benefits cliff”). Because all these issues may stand in the way of getting and retaining a job, Towards Employment is engaging with local and national networks to develop more effective policies and practices to mitigate them….

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