Michigan Works! Association
Visioning Retreat
The Michigan Works! Association is composed of all 25 Michigan Works! agencies (MWAs) across the state. These agencies provide workforce services to thousands of individuals and employers each year through One-Stop Career Centers, Regional Skills Alliances, and other vehicles. As Michigan’s economy changes at an apparently accelerating pace, the MWAs have come to understand that they need to adapt their role, strategies, and services in order to remain relevant to the evolving needs of their customers. One tool for imagining the changes needed is a vision for the future of their entire system, since such a vision could serve as a point of reference for a wide range of strategic and tactical decisions. The association asked PPA, in conjunction with the firm’s frequent collaborator, Corporation for a Skilled Workforce, to facilitate development of this vision. The challenge was great, since the agencies vary in size, serve urban and rural areas, and are led by directors with widely divergent perspectives. The PPA team responded with a carefully designed three-session retreat in which the directors of the MWAs along with the leadership of the association initially brainstormed ideas about what the future might hold and implications for their agencies. After the first session, the PPA team wrote a draft of a vision that served as the basis for the second session. The directors commented on, criticized, and proposed revisions to the draft. As a next step, the PPA team created a close-to-final version, which was refined and finalized at the third session. The association now has a clear vision of what its agencies and the association itself need to look like in five years. The group has asked PPA to facilitate a process through which a common vision of the future could be shared with the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth.
City of East Lansing
University Cost Impacts
Working with the City of East Lansing and Michigan State University, PPA is examining the negative impacts of the university presence in the East Lansing community. This involves determining additional costs to the City of East Lansing as expressed in areas such as additional police, fire, and court costs. It also includes examination of increased workload volume for departments such as the City Clerk.
City of East Lansing
University Benefits
Working with the City of East Lansing and Michigan State University, PPA is examining the positive benefits of the University presence in the East Lansing community. The benefit examination will include the benefits from the university payroll to East Lansing residents, including student employees, as well as expenditures by students, faculty, employers, and visitors. PPA will examine the general level of services provided in East Lansing relative to selected other cities in Michigan of similar size and also compare the relative growth of key variables such as population and property values.
City of East Lansing
Validate Revenue and Expenditure Forecasting Model
This project involved validating the assumptions and structure of a model developed by the City of East Lansing to forecast both revenues and expenditures for use in its budget-development process. PPA staff reviewed the structure and assumptions with key East Lansing staff, suggested alternative approaches to the proposed methodology for forecasting some items, and suggested some external sources that could be used to validate basic forecasting assumptions in the future at low or no cost.
Michign State University
Michigan’s Statewide Earned Income Tax Credit Initiative
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a popular and proven method for raising the household income of the working poor. The federal tax credit allows millions of dollars to flow back into the pockets of workers and, subsequently, into the local economies in Michigan. Unfortunately, it was estimated that nearly $400 million went unclaimed in Michigan in 2002. In order to address this problem, Governor Granholm launched a statewide EITC Initiative to publicize the EITC and increase the claim rate among the eligible populations. Michigan State University (MSU) entered into a two-year agreement with the Michigan Family Independence Agency (now the Michigan Department of Human Services [MDHS]) to carry out this plan. MSU completed a series of statewide and local activities for the Initiative in 2003–2004. A new series of activities was proposed for 2004–2005 as part of the second year of the Initiative including additional Web site development, outreach to strategic groups, development of a strategic plan, fund development, and public policy work. PPA was asked to conduct a descriptive and formative evaluation of the year-two activities for the Initiative. This descriptive evaluation documented the activities that took place in 2004 and 2005, providing information to assist stakeholders in planning for future work.
Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth
Assessing the Needs of the Michigan Auto Workforce
This project is examining issues associated with the adequate supply of workers for the automobile industry of the future. Despite the downsizing of the traditional Big 3 manufacturers and their suppliers in recent years, the demographic reality is that ten and twenty years from the demographics of the baby boom retirees will mean that the available supply of workers may create structural problems for this industry along with many others. The project is looking at a variety of solutions ranging from more widely available technical programs in high schools and community colleges to increasing the workforce participation rate to encouraging older reentrants into the workforce and more.
Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
Dellums Commission
Working under the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, this project provides analysis to identify and examine national, state, and local systems, policies, and practices that have the combined and cumulative effect of limiting the life options of young males of color. The goal of the project is to make specific recommendations for needed change in these policies and practices that will result in improved life circumstances for these young men. Responsibilities include consultation on project planning and design; assist in identification and orientation of project leadership group and principal researchers; identify key state and local policymakers; provide strategic consultation regarding state and local public policy opportunities and dissemination strategies; and assist in establishment of connections with national associations of state, local, and tribal offices.
Community Foundation of Greater Flint
Evaluation of the Community Challenge, Phase II
The Community Foundation of Greater Flint (CFGF) engaged PPA to conduct an evaluation of a 15-month long process in the Flint, Michigan area that was designed to (1) identify and address a broad spectrum of communitywide issues, and (2) do so by establishing a new, sustainable approach to dealing with community issues to serve the long-term interests of the greater Flint area. An approach that is typically implemented within Fortune 500 corporations to change the prevailing organizational culture was implemented in the Flint area over a year-long period through the identification of a number of critical issues within the community and the establishment of separate but associated working groups to address them. Specific efforts were made within these groups to bring a wider spectrum of community participants than ever before in order to build capacity within the community and to assure the sustainability of the process in the future. PPA employed a multifaceted research approach including observation at Community Challenge work group meetings, leadership meetings, and communitywide forums; in-depth interviews with the members of the project’s leadership team; surveys conducted with active participants in the project as well as interested community residents; and primary-source data collection on the personal characteristics of project participants. PPA produced a final report that concluded that significant progress had been made in implementing a new approach to community development projects in the greater Flint area and that measurable progress had been made in identifying and addressing important goals by each of the four community work groups. The results of this effort are that the Greater Flint Community Foundation and its funding partners planned to continue the project for another year or more.
ZimmerFish
MET Focus Groups
PPA was hired by Zimmerfish Creative to conduct a study to determine the reasons why individuals choose or do not choose to purchase a MET contract. Zimmerfish and the MET leadership wanted to learn more about why individuals chose particular approaches to save for their children’s college education in an attempt to better inform both the MET leadership to guide the strategic direction of the MET and the ongoing MET advertising campaign as both seek ways to increase the conversion rate of requests and the overall number of MET contracts purchased. Thus, the research project sought more information about why some individuals who contact MET to request information about the program choose to buy contracts, some choose to invest in competing savings plans, and some choose not to invest at all. To achieve this goal, PPA conducted a series of focus groups to better understand why parents make certain choices when saving for their children’s education. In contrast to previous research that gathered valuable quantitative data about the MET, this study provides a more in-depth analysis of how and why parents make decisions regarding saving for the children’s college education. PPA conducted six focus groups—three in Livonia and three in East Lansing, comprised of 9–10 people for each group who had inquired about the MET within the last four years. For each of the locations, participants were divided into three groups: those who chose to purchase a MET contract (MET purchasers), those that chose to invest in MESP or another 529 program (MESP purchasers), and those who chose not to save through MET, MESP, or another 529 program (Inquiries). Participants selected had a household income of greater than $45,000 per year, reflecting the target audience for the MET advertising campaign.
James Irvine Foundation
Evaluation of the Great Valley Center
Over the past five years, leading foundations in California have invested over $10 million in the creation and beginning operation of the Great Valley Center (GVC), a regional intermediary organization created as a catalyst to improve the economic, social, and environmental health of the California’s Central Valley. PPA was asked by the Irvine and Hewlett Foundations to conduct a rapid and intensive evaluation of the Great Valley Center, its overall impact on the Central Valley, and the success of its multiple programmatic initiatives, as well as to help make recommendations for avenues and strategies by which these and other funders should focus the work of the GVC. Over the course of several months, PPA is designing and implementing a comprehensive evaluation and providing recommendations to the Irvine and Hewlett Foundations’ Boards of Directors regarding their findings and directions for effective future investment.
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