[From Our Partners] An Evaluation of a Workforce Development Program for Domestic Violence Survivors in New York City

The Career Readiness Training Program (CRTP) is one of the most established programs for domestic violence survivors offered by Sanctuary for Families (SFF). It aims to teach, refresh, and improve fundamentals of career development to help participants establish careers, advance their careers, and secure a foothold in the living-wage economy.

Until 2018, the CRTP was offered at SFF headquarters in Manhattan and served approximately 100 to 120 participants a year. In 2018, SFF received a stream of funding from the Criminal Justice Investment Initiative, a partnership between the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and CUNY ISLG, which enabled SFF to begin offering the CRTP in the Manhattan Family Justice Center, a critical location where SFF and other victim service providers offer services to more than 10,000 survivors a year who come in for crisis support, counseling, and many other supports. Expanding to the new location provided SFF an opportunity to reach more survivors, including those who might not reach out to it directly. As part of this funding, the Urban Institute conducted an evaluation focused on both locations, which served 86 CRTP clients during the cycles studied: 44 clients who started in fall 2019 and 42 who started in spring 2020.

For a blog post exploring high-level findings, see here.