OMB Part A_070816

Contents
A.

Supporting Statement For Paperwork Reduction Submission: Evaluation of Youth
Corps: 18-Month Follow-up ...................................................................................................A-1
A.1.
Circumstances Requiring the Collection of Data................................................A-1
A.2.
Purposes and Uses of the Data ............................................................................A-3
A.3.
Use of Information Technology to Reduce Burden ............................................A-4
A.4.
Efforts to Identify Duplication ............................................................................A-5
A.5.
Small Business ....................................................................................................A-5
A.6.
Consequences of Not Collecting the Information ...............................................A-5
A.7.
Special Circumstances Justifying Inconsistencies With Guidelines in 5 CFR
1320.6..................................................................................................................A-5
A.8.
Consultation Outside the Agency........................................................................A-5
A.9.
Payments or Gifts to Respondents ......................................................................A-6
A.10.
Assurance of Confidentiality...............................................................................A-6
A.11.
Questions of a Sensitive Nature ..........................................................................A-7
A.12.
Estimate of Response Burden .............................................................................A-9
A.13.
Estimate of Total Capital and Startup Costs/Operation and Maintenance
Costs to Respondents or Record-Keeper...........................................................A-10
A.14.
Estimates of Costs to the Federal Government .................................................A-10
A.15.
Changes in Burden ............................................................................................A-10
A.16.
Plans for Publication, Analysis, and Schedule..................................................A-10
A.17.
Approval to Not Display Expiration Date.........................................................A-10
A.18.
Exceptions to Item 19 of OMB Form 83-1 .......................................................A-11

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A. Supporting Statement For Paperwork Reduction
Submission: Evaluation of Youth Corps: 18Month Follow-up
A.1. Circumstances Requiring the Collection of Data
The Corporation for National and Community Service (the Corporation) is requesting approval for
follow-up data collection on the impacts of participation on individuals enrolled in youth corps
programs. For this evaluation, we are implementing a random assignment evaluation of a nationally
representative sample of youth corps programs.
We received OMB approval for baseline data collection for this evaluation on May 31, 2006 (OMB #
3045-0119). Baseline data collection was completed on June 4, 2007. This submission requests
approval for the follow-up survey data collection for study participants approximately 18 months
later.
Youth corps are state and local programs engaging primarily young adults (age 16–25) in a
combination of national service, job training, and education. The majority of corpsmembers enroll in
corps looking for a second chance to succeed in life. During their period of service, corpsmembers
work in teams of 8–12, usually engaging in intensive service projects (mentoring young children,
responding to natural disasters, and directly addressing unmet community and environmental needs)
four days a week and participating in a comprehensive education, life skills, and civic engagement
program on the fifth day. In return for their efforts, corpsmembers generally receive: 1) guidance by
adult leaders who serve as mentors and role models; 2) a minimum-wage based stipend; 3) classroom
training to improve basic competences and, if necessary, secure a GED or high school diploma; 4) onthe-job experiential and environmental education; 5) general and technical job skills training; 6) a
wide range of support services; and 7) in some cases, a post-service AmeriCorps education award.
Approximately 85 percent of the youth corps in operation nationwide receive AmeriCorps funding.1
The study will provide an opportunity to use rigorous and scientifically based research methods to
examine the power of youth corps to improve the lives of youth. In addition, the study design allows
for an exploration of the differential effects associated with the three levels of participation: full-time,
part-time, and limited part-time.
A previous study of youth corps, conducted over a decade ago by the Corporation, found participation
in youth corps led to increases in employment and earnings as well as reduced levels of criminal
arrests. It also identified numerous other outcomes for subgroups defined by gender and
race/ethnicity, in particular for African-American men. However, numerous changes have occurred in
the last decade, emphasizing the need for an updated evaluation of youth corps programs. First,
attention to the field of service participation has grown dramatically. Since the commencement of the
previous youth corps evaluation in 1993, the Corporation for National and Community Service, the
parent organization of the AmeriCorps program, has been expanded dramatically to address our

1

Corpsmembers may be supported both by regular AmeriCorps funding and as Education Award only
recipients.

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country’s domestic service needs. Likewise, President George Bush introduced the USA Freedom
Corps in order to mobilize service participation nationwide.
Furthermore, community service research is a relatively young field, and the most sophisticated
instruments and measures to examine service and civic engagement outcomes have been developed in
the past decade.2 In addition to academic discussions on emergent techniques in evaluating
community programming,3 this recent body of research is the most informative in the field to date.
The surveys used to collect data for this research have been constructed using the most up-to-date and
sensitive instruments to offer data of a higher quality.
Finally, the current economic environment is substantially different from the economic environment
of the early 1990s. Disadvantaged youth from the 1993/1994 cohort of the youth corps study may
have faced several challenges with respect to obtaining education and employment opportunities prior
to participation; the results of the original study found the program’s strongest impacts to be on
participants’ employment and earnings.4 However, what were formerly traditional challenges in the
job market present tremendous hurdles in today’s economy. More than half of current corpsmembers
nationwide dropped out of high school prior to entering the corps. For these youth, jobs are
particularly hard to find. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the sharpest decline in labor
force participation between the first quarter of 2001 and the second quarter of 2003 occurred among
persons age 16–24.5 In addition, the number of teenage Americans will increase vastly between 2000
and 2010. These numbers, in the context of the current economy, imply increased difficulties and
competition in the world of work and wages.6 In the wake of the current recession, programs
connecting disadvantaged youth to education and employment opportunities will be even more
essential for making a difference in their lives. The difficulties of the economic environment warrant
a new examination of the impacts of youth corps programs on participants.

2

See Putnam, Robert D. 2000. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New
York: Simon and Schuster; Abt Associates Inc., Long-Term Impacts on Service Participants: PostProgram Supplemental Survey, Cambridge, MA, June 2002; Saguaro Seminar, Civic Engagement in
America: Social Capital Community Benchmark (Survey) Final Version, Kennedy School of Government,
Harvard University, DL14407/14408, August 4, 2000; Verba, S., Schlozman, K. L., Brady, H. E., & Nie,
N., American Citizen Participation Study, 1990 [Data file], Chicago: University of Chicago, National
Opinion Research Center, 1990; Independent Sector, Giving and Volunteering in the United States,
Washington, D.C., Independent Sector, 2001; Independent Sector, Volunteering and Giving Among
Teenagers, Washington, D.C; 1996.

3

Fulbright-Anderson, K., A. C. Kubisch, and J. P. Connell, eds., New Approaches to Evaluating Community
Initiatives: Vol. 2, Theory, Measurement, and Analysis. The Aspen Institute, Roundtable on Comprehensive
Community Initiatives for Children and Families, 1998. For a discussion on evaluating youth development
initiatives, see Public/Private Ventures, Youth Development: Issues, Challenges and Directions.
Philadelphia, PA, Fall 2000.

4

Jastrzab, J., J. Blomquist, J. Masker, and L. Orr, Youth Corps: Promising Strategies for Young People and
Their Communities. Cambridge, MA: Abt Associates Inc., February 1997.

5

Bureau of Labor Statistics, Labor Force Participation During Recent Labor Market Downturns. September
2003. Available at http://www.bls.gov/opub/ils/pdf/opbils51.pdf.

6

Public/Private Ventures, Youth Development: Issues, Challenges and Directions. Philadelphia, PA, Fall
2000.

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The Corporation has an interest in the study of youth corps because the results of this study will
enable the Corporation to fulfill its mandate to support programs that: 1) instill work ethic and sense
of public service in participants; and 2) enhance skills development and educational level and
opportunities for participants (as detailed in Section 199H 42 USC 12655). Also, this study
complements the Corporation’s strategic plan, specifically addressing two of our ten key guiding
principles: #4) to measure and continually improve our programs’ benefits to service recipients,
participants, community organization, and our national culture of service and #9) to support continued
civic engagement, leadership, and public service careers for our programs’ participants and
community volunteers.

A.2. Purposes and Uses of the Data
The Corporation for National and Community Service is a government-owned agency established in
1993 by the National Community Service Act. The Corporation’s mission is to engage Americans of
all ages and backgrounds in community-based national service that is intended to address the Nation’s
education, public safety, human, and environmental needs in order to achieve direct and demonstrable
results. The Corporation’s programs and public-private partnerships involve national and
community-based service organizations, corporations, foundations, colleges, universities, K–12
schools, and state and municipal governments.
The purpose of the Evaluation of Youth Corps: 18-Month Follow-up is to measure changes on
behavioral and attitudinal outcomes resulting from participation in youth corps. The study will treat
participation in youth corps as the primary intervention, and will address the following key research
question:
What are the impacts of youth corps participation on corpsmembers, with respect to both behavioral
and attitudinal outcomes, including:
•
•
•
•
•
•

Civic Engagement and Citizenship
Educational Attainment
Employment Outcomes
Workplace and Life Skills
Avoidance of Risk Behavior
Personal Development

We expect that the findings from the study will contribute broadly to the fields of civic engagement
and youth development research, and will provide valuable information about the effectiveness of
these programs on the youth they serve. The study is grounded in the hypothesis that participation in
youth corps can generate positive behavioral and attitudinal outcomes in the critical areas listed
above. We hypothesize that successful achievement of these outcomes can alter the social and
economic prospects of disadvantaged or at-risk youth.
The Corporation is heavily invested in learning more about “what works” for at-risk young adults.
Service programs such as youth corps are founded on the assumption that participants will achieve
higher levels of selected behavioral and attitudinal outcomes than non-participants. The proposed
study will address the impacts of participation in youth corps, providing valuable information to the
youth development field about the effectiveness of investments by public entities that directly affect
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at-risk young adults. Moreover, we anticipate that the results from the study will be broadly
disseminated to practitioners and other policymakers in the field, helping them to apply relevant
findings and strengthen youth service programs.
In addition, since many youth corps are also AmeriCorps programs, the study will enable the
Corporation for National and Community Service to make more informed decisions about effective
investments in youth programming. The proposed design of the study is responsive to recent findings
of the White House Task Force for Disadvantaged Youth (2003), which recommends that randomized
experiments be “given the greatest weight in shaping what we know about what works.” It also
reflects the Corporation’s commitment to supporting the most rigorous evaluation strategies.
In addition, the individual corps will benefit from participating in the study. This study employs the
most rigorous research standards, enabling the local corps to inform program stakeholders,
government officials, funders, and their communities about their program model and its impact on
youth’s lives. Participation in the study will most likely result in benefits for the corps in terms of
community support, fund-raising, and youth applicants.
The research will include two data collections: a baseline survey for youth corpsmembers and a
comparison group (completed May 2007), and a follow-up survey for youth corpsmembers and for
the comparison group at 18 months post-baseline. This submission requests approval for the followup survey data collection. The Corporation was granted approval for the baseline survey data
collection on May 31, 2006 (OMB # 3045-0119).

A.3. Use of Information Technology to Reduce Burden
This study will rely on baseline data gathered from a self-administered survey of eligible applicants to
youth corps, and a follow-up survey to be completed by youths who completed the baseline survey.
Baseline surveys were completed by youths during the application process between June 2006 and
June 2007. When individual youth corps programs had the technological capacity to administer
applications electronically, surveys were administered electronically to alleviate administrative
burden on individual program sites and on the respondents. When this was not possible, responses
were collected in a paper version of the instrument in conjunction with other paper forms generally
used during the corps application process.
Follow-up surveys will be conducted with all youths who completed the baseline survey. They will
be conducted by phone using computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) technology in order
to minimize burden on respondents. This method of data collection reduces error and minimizes the
number of times survey respondents have to be re-contacted for additional or clarifying information.
The information needed for this evaluation cannot be obtained through any existing information
technology. It is not routinely recorded by the Corporation in any electronic information medium that
could be adapted to obtain the data required to address the research objectives.

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A.4. Efforts to Identify Duplication
Efforts to avoid duplication include a review of the Corporation’s administrative agency reporting
requirements and of existing studies of Corporation programs. Based on this review, it was
concluded that no other data are currently being collected to answer this study’s research question
about youth corps. Existing data can and will be used whenever possible.

A.5. Small Business
No small businesses are involved as respondents in the proposed follow-up data collection effort.
Respondents are all individuals who are eligible applicants to youth corps programs.

A.6. Consequences of Not Collecting the Information
This submission is for a one-time 18-month follow-up data collection necessary to assess the
characteristics and experiences of youths who participate in a youth corps program or are part of our
control group. Without these data we will not be able to determine the effects of youth corps on the
civic engagement, educational attainment, employment, and other outcomes for corpsmembers
detailed above as compared to those youth that did not receive youth corps services.

A.7. Special Circumstances Justifying Inconsistencies With
Guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.6
There are no special circumstances required for the collection of information in this follow-up data
collection.

A.8. Consultation Outside the Agency
In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Corporation published a notice in the
Federal Register announcing the agency’s intention to request an OMB review of data collection
activities. This notice was published on Thursday, May 17, 2007 in volume 72, number 95, on pages
27805-27806 and provided a 60-day period for public comments. A copy of the Federal Register
notice for this information collection is included in Appendix B. There were no public comments
submitted to the Corporation in response to the Federal Register notice.
The follow-up survey was developed by the Corporation’s contractor, Abt Associates Inc. The initial
design phase of the study and the development of the baseline survey instrument involved face-toface and telecommunication meetings between Abt Associates Inc., The Corps Network and their
affiliates, and an expert panel of individuals with substantive knowledge in fields related to the
intended outcomes. The design of the follow-up survey was also discussed at these meetings and the
expert panel provided some recommendations for the development of the follow-up survey at that
time. In addition, a final draft of the follow-up survey was reviewed by members of the expert panel
and their comments were incorporated into the final version of the instrument. The experts consulted
are listed in Exhibit A-1.

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Exhibit A-1
Expert Panel Members
Constance A. Flanagan, the Pennsylvania State University
Harry Holzer, Ph.D. Georgetown Public Policy Institute
Linda Harris, Center for Law and Social Policy
David Reingold, Ph.D. Indiana University

A number of items from the baseline survey have been repeated in the follow-up survey instrument.
Many of the additional follow-up items were chosen from existing surveys, such as the Current
Population Survey and the post-program and supplemental surveys used in the AmeriCorps
Longitudinal Study.

A.9. Payments or Gifts to Respondents
To offset the burden of completing the follow-up survey, respondents will receive $20 upon
completion of the follow-up survey. This amount is consistent with payments on similar studies, and
was found sufficient based on our pre-test of the instrument with former corpsmembers.

A.10. Assurance of Confidentiality
The follow-up data collection plan has been reviewed and approved by the Abt Associates Inc.
Institutional Review Board. Every effort will be made to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of
respondents. The confidentiality procedures adopted for this study during follow-up data collection,
data processing, and analysis will consist of the following:
•

All study respondents will be assured that participation in the study is voluntary and the
information they provide is confidential to the extent allowed by law and will be used
only for the purpose of this research. To ensure data security, all individuals hired by the
Corporation’s contractor, Abt Associates Inc., are held to strict standards and are required
to sign an oath of confidentiality as a condition of employment.

•

All study participants signed a consent form before completing the baseline survey,
acknowledging their understanding of the confidentiality procedures used in the study.
Written consent was also obtained from a parent or guardian of all study respondents
between the ages of 16 and 18 before completion of the baseline survey. These consent
forms included confidentiality information about both the baseline and follow-up survey.

•

Follow-up survey data will be recorded directly into a computer database, using a
computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) system, which eliminates the need for
responses to be captured on paper. Respondent names will appear only once on computer
monitors to telephone interviewers in order for them to reach the appropriate individual;
only unique participant identification numbers, not respondent names, will be included in
the database. All data files on Abt Associates Inc. multi-user systems will be under the
control of a database manager, with access limited to project staff on a “need-to-know”
basis only.

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•

Individuals’ identifying information will be maintained separately from completed data
collection forms and from computerized data files used for analysis. No respondent
identifiers will be contained in public use files made available from the study, and no data
will be released in a form that identifies individual corps staff, service providers,
corpsmembers, or control group members.

A.11. Questions of a Sensitive Nature
Most of the questions asked in the baseline instrument do not involve questions of a sensitive nature.
However, one of the goals of youth corps is to reduce negative behaviors in high-risk youth who are
targeted for participation in the program. For this reason, we have included a small number of
questions of a sensitive nature. Also, question 69 is a common question asked on many applications
for federal programs (e.g., Corporation for National and Community Service Application Form,
OMB# 3045-0054; Office of Personnel Management, Form OF-306). This information is not
available from other sources.
To protect respondents from discomfort, respondents will be informed that they may skip any
questions they wish not to answer, and they may cease participating in the study at any point.
Specifically, respondents are told prior to answering this set of questions that, “In this section, we ask
some questions that some people may feel are personal. Please remember, other than researchers, no
one, not even youth corps staff, employers, family or friends, will see your answers.”
The sensitive questions, items 66 through 72, are shown below:

66.

In the past 30 days, did you ever drink five or more drinks of wine, beer, or liquor at one time or in one
sitting?
YES
NO (GO TO Q67)
66a.

On about how many different days did you have five or more drinks of wine, beer, or liquor
during the past 30 days?
_______ NUMBER OF DAYS

67.

In the past 30 days have you used any illegal drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, crack,
methamphetamines, hallucinogens, or heroin?
YES
NO (GO TO 68)
67a.

On about how many different days did you use illegal drugs during the past 30 days?
_______ NUMBER OF DAYS

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68.

In the past 12 months, have you ever been arrested for any criminal offense by either a civilian or
military court?
YES
NO (GO TO 70)

69.

In the past 12 months, have you ever been convicted, or adjudicated as a juvenile offender, of any
criminal offense by either a civilian or military court, other than minor traffic violations?
YES
NO (GO TO 70)
69a.

In the past 12 months, how many days were you incarcerated?
_________ DAYS

70.

71.

In the last year, have you ever …
YES

NO

Intentionally damaged or destroyed property that did not belong to you

‰

‰

Gotten into a fight at school or work

‰

‰

Hurt someone badly enough to need bandages or a doctor

‰

‰

Taken something from a store without paying for it

‰

‰

Other than from a store, taken something not belonging to you

‰

‰

Knowingly sold or held stolen goods

‰

‰

Used force to get money or things from someone else

‰

‰

Hit or seriously threatened to hit someone

‰

‰

Taken a vehicle without the owner’s permission

‰

‰

Broken into a building or vehicle to steal something or to just look around?

‰

‰

Helped in a gambling operation, like running numbers or books

‰

‰

Attacked someone with the idea of seriously hurting or killing them?

‰

‰

During the past 12 months did you ever feel so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more
in a row that you stopped doing some usual activities?
YES
NO

72.

During the past 12 months did you ever seriously consider suicide?
YES
NO

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A.12. Estimate of Response Burden
The total burden for the individual is estimated at 60 minutes for treatment group members and 45
minutes for control group members. There is no financial burden, as the survey will be administered
during a phone call initiated by Abt Associates’ subcontractor, Guideline Inc. Time estimates are
based on pre-tests of the survey with four former youth corps members. Exhibit A-2 presents
estimates of the reporting burden both for individuals randomly assigned to serve in youth corps and
those assigned to the control group.
A.12.1. Number of Respondents, Frequency of Response, and Annual Hour Burden

The follow-up survey will have approximately 2,267 respondents, 1,473 treatment and 794 control,
and will take on average 45 to 60 minutes (1 hour for treatment and .75 hours for control) to
complete. The follow-up survey will be administered one time. This estimated burden is based on a
pre-test of the follow-up instrument with four former youth corps participants.
A.12.2. Hour Burden Estimates by Each Form and Aggregate Hour Burdens

There is a single version of the follow-up survey. The aggregate hour burden ranges from .75 to 1
hour (45-60 minutes). This estimated burden is based on a pre-test of the follow-up instrument with
four former youth corps participants.
A.12.3. Estimates of Annualized Cost to Respondents for the Hour Burdens

Exhibit A-2 offers an estimate of reporting burden for a sample of 1,473 treatment and 794 control
group respondents to a 45- and 60-minute survey (Appendix A). The Corporation estimates a
corpsmembers’ average hourly living allowance at $5.38. Other than their time to complete the
survey, there are no direct monetary costs to respondents.
Exhibit A-2
Estimate of Reporting Burden
Data
Collection
Sources

Number of
Respondents

Minutes per
Respondent

Response
Burden in
Hours

Cost/
Hour

Cost to
Respondents

1,473

60

1,473

$5.38

$7,924.74

Eligible youth
corps
applicants in
control group

794

45

595.5

$5.38

$3,203.79

Total for all
eligible youth
corps
applicants

2,267

__

2068.5

$5.38

$11,128.53

Eligible youth
corps
applicants in
treatment group

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Written consent for participation in the study has already been obtained from the parents of
respondents between the ages of 16 and 18. Therefore, the follow-up survey will not impose any
burden on the parents of minor respondents.

A.13. Estimate of Total Capital and Startup Costs/Operation and
Maintenance Costs to Respondents or Record-Keeper
There are no annualized capital/startup or ongoing operation and maintenance costs involved in
collecting the information. Other than their time to complete the surveys, which is estimated in
Exhibit A-2, there are no direct monetary costs to respondents.

A.14. Estimates of Costs to the Federal Government
The estimated cost to the Federal Government for the Evaluation of Youth Corps: 18-Month Followup data collection activities is $318,651.

A.15. Changes in Burden
No change in burden is requested. This submission to OMB is for an initial request for approval.

A.16. Plans for Publication, Analysis, and Schedule
The Corporation’s subcontractor, Abt Associates Inc., will use baseline and follow-up survey data to
estimate the impacts of participation in a youth corps program. Random assignment produces
treatment and control group members who are comparable in every way except for receipt of
treatment. Abt Associates will use a standard difference-in-means approach to yield average impact
estimates of participation in youth corps programs. This approach compares average outcomes of
treatment and control group members; given random assignment, any differences can be attributable
to the program. To the extent possible, program effects on various subgroups will also be examined.
Subgroups of interest may include race/ethnicity, gender, age, education, and program.
A user-friendly final report will be produced that can be disseminated to a broad audience, including
policymakers, practitioners, and researchers. The final report will present the key findings of the
impact analysis based on a comparison of corpsmembers with their counterparts in the control group.
It will describe any differences between the two groups in terms of educational and employment
outcomes, and attitudinal differences. It will also include relevant descriptive characteristics and the
results of any variation found between subgroups and by type of program experience. The delivery of
the final report, which will be based on the previously completed baseline data collection and this
follow-up data collection, is scheduled for 2009.

A.17. Approval to Not Display Expiration Date
No exemption is requested.

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A.18. Exceptions to Item 19 of OMB Form 83-1
This submission describing data collection requests no exceptions to the Certificate for Paperwork
Reduction Act (5 CFR 1320.9).

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