People who run programs for job seekers with low incomes need evidence on the interventions and strategies that can help their clients succeed in the labor market. Others need this evidence, too – including those making decisions on how to best allocate public resources and those seeking to expand the existing knowledge base.

To provide reliable, accessible information about what works to help job seekers find and keep gainful employment, the Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation (OPRE) at the Administration for Children & Families (ACF) launched the Pathways Clearinghouse. The Pathways to Work Evidence Clearinghouse (Pathways Clearinghouse) is built on a foundation of Rigor, Credibility and Accessibility.

 

Watch our video to get to know the Pathways Clearinghouse!

Accessible video

Rigor

The Pathways Clearinghouse applies rigorous standards to assess the quality of research on employment-focused interventions that serve individuals with low incomes. After assessing the quality of that research, the Pathways Clearinghouse rates the effectiveness of those interventions for earnings, employment, public benefit receipt, and education and training.

These rigorous steps produce a set of ratings for every study and every intervention and can be used to compare the effectiveness of one intervention to another.

View protocol

Applying a rigorous process:

  • Conduct a systematic review to find all studies that meet the eligibility criteria.
  • Rate the quality of those studies against established standards and assign ratings of high, moderate, and low.
  • Assess the effectiveness of each intervention on earnings, employment, public benefit receipt, and education and training outcomes, based on the rigor and findings of the studies.

   Credibility

People who design and operate programs for job seekers are the experts when it comes to what information they need and how to present that information. OPRE worked with a panel of these experts, including TANF administrators and employment service providers, throughout the development of the Pathways Clearinghouse. Their insight and feedback informed all aspects of this project, including how to present information on studies and interventions in a way that is most relevant to their needs. They also tested each feature of the website. OPRE continues to engage practitioners, policymakers, and researchers to understand what evidence they need and how to present it on the website.

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 Accessibility

The Pathways Clearinghouse is designed to help practitioners, policymakers, and researchers easily access and understand the effectiveness of interventions that aim to improve employment outcomes for job seekers with low incomes. The website is a single source for information on more than 177 interventions based on over 246 individual studies, with new reviews underway. The Find Interventions that Work search tool allows people - including employment service providers seeking interventions that are most likely to meet the needs of their clients - to quickly find the most relevant information. Information about an intervention’s effectiveness is presented alongside information about how to implement that intervention and the context in which it has been shown to work.

Find Interventions That Work

262
Interventions
reviewed to date
337
Studies
reviewed to date