Supporting Pathways Out of Poverty: A Randomized Evaluation of AMP Up Boston

Poverty generates multi-faceted barriers that can prevent economic mobility. Mobility Mentoring, an intensive case management intervention developed by Economic Mobility Pathways (EMPath), is a promising intervention that could help individuals overcome these barriers. The Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO), Harvard University, and the North America office of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL North America) have partnered with EMPath, the Boston Housing Authority and the Cambridge Housing Authority to conduct a randomized evaluation of AMP Up, a program offering Mobility Mentoring to public housing residents in Boston and Cambridge. The AMP Up study has been ongoing since October 2021 and concluded enrollment in January of 2024 with a full sample of 620 households. This add-on funding from an original 2021 J-PAL grant of this project will improve response rates to a follow-up survey that will allow us to access outcomes that are unavailable in administrative records and have not been examined in other evaluations of comprehensive case management. These outcomes include information on gig economy work, mental and physical health, labor market experiences (e.g., wages, hours worked, job search), and employment program alternatives taken up by the control group.