City of Philadelphia

WorkReady Philadelphia is a cross-sector, city-wide initiative dedicated to improving the economic outcomes of the region’s youth by attracting, aligning, and investing resources in coordinated, youth-workforce-development strategies. The WorkReady summer program offers educationally enriched work opportunities to in-school and out of school youth ages 12-24. Participants complete a six-week (120 hour), paid work experience that fosters the acquisition of the 21st century skills through work-based learning. The City of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Youth Network (PYN), the managing partner of WorkReady, are partnering with J-PAL North America and Professor Sara Heller, a J-PAL affiliate, to develop a randomized evaluation of the Work Ready Program. The City and PYN plan to use administrative data to explore the impact of summer youth employment on important measures of well-being such as academic achievement, future employment, substance abuse, and pregnancy.