Solutions to Overcoming Challenges and Achieving Success DS grantees were asked to share more about participants’ challenges and barriers while working towards employment, educational, and other goals. Detailed information on participant barriers is reported in the Year 1 WAGES Evaluation Report. In this section, we highlight innovative solutions that were highlighted in the 2021 WAGES Survey.
Participants’ Innovative Solutions COVID-19 required many participants to create new innovative solutions to respond to the new challenges the pandemic presented. Participants used COVID-19 as a motivator to explore new career opportunities, begin entrepreneurial careers, and develop new work/home life balances to stay on track with their goals. Below, we share strategies that emerged from the 2021 WAGES Survey. Year 3 Highlights
Participants were: • Engaging in new entrepreneurial endeavors • Seeking co/multi-family housing opportunities to cut financial costs • Open to temporary employment to offset disruptions in work hours from COVID-19 • Balancing new home/work life commitments • Utilizing new flexible financial support (e.g., COVID-19 stipends) for emergency needs • Pursuing traditionally male-dominated fields (similar to previous years) Further, DS grantees continue to adapt their services to help participants reach their goals (see What Helps Women and Their Families Achieve Economic Security on the following page). “Our primary innovation in the past year was a result of COVID and our services quickly migrating to a remote environment. We quickly pivoted to provide virtual meetings - both to current program Participants and to Applicants (Help Sessions) - using virtual tools such as Zoom and Calendly for scheduling. Our anecdotal evidence is that this actually worked very well for clients. We had to work through some technology and access hurdles, but once that was accomplished, meetings held virtually had a higher attendance rate and we on-boarded 51 new families in 2020, despite the pandemic.”
– Direct Service Grantee
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