Document Type

Report

Publication Date

6-2017

Abstract

The Vocational and Life Skills Program was created by Nebraska Legislative Bill 907 in 2014 with the goals of reducing recidivism and increasing employment for individuals who are incarcerated, who have been incarcerated within the prior 18 months or who are under parole or probation supervision. Participants must begin programming under these conditions, but they may continue programming as the program sees fit for his or her individual needs. Eight programs were funded in Grant Cycle 2, which runs from July 2016-June 2018. The Nebraska Center for Justice Research (NCJR) evaluation was initiated in May 2016 with the primary goal of identifying types of programming and services that best serve the population by reducing recidivism and increasing employment. We provide support to grantees through trainings and site visits as needed and manage all participant data that is entered into the online data management system that was created specifically for Vocational and Life Skills data collection. We also provide feedback and information to the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS) on the implementation process and data updates on a monthly and quarterly basis.

This grant cycle has built upon the work of many programs and the NDCS reentry team in the first grant cycle, which has increased capacity to provide programming as well as increased the ability to gather data on participants in these programs. This report details evaluation updates and participant data from Quarter 1 through Quarter 4 of this grant cycle. New information from Quarter 4 is added to the text of this report from previous quarters. All graphs and tables are current through Quarter 4.

An additional annual report will be submitted for the first year of grant cycle two to document changes from Quarter 1 through Quarter 4 and to highlight areas of success and opportunities to grow in year two and into the next grant cycle. Additional information on participant surveys and employment will also be included in the annual report. Because of this additional report, some of the narrative portion including evaluation activities, successes and challenges, and other program information regularly highlighted in quarterly reports will not appear in this update report.

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