The Los Angeles Economic and Workforce Development Department YouthSource System and Hire LA Program Evaluation

• Christian Geckeler will serve as Principal Investigator
• Lea Folsom will serve as Project Director
• Ivette Gutierrez will serve as lead for the Logic Model, Interview Tool, and Interview tasks
• Skye Allmang will serve as lead for the Literature Review task
• Mika Clark will serve as lead for the Survey task
• Renatta DeFever will serve as Senior Advisor, especially related to performance data
• Kate Dunham will serve as Senior Advisor, providing overall guidance and expertise on workforce system policy and practice

As noted in SPR’s introduction letter, the Los Angeles Economic and Workforce Development (EWDD) has proposed that a large scope of work for this evaluation occur within a relatively compressed timeframe. More specially, all work is scheduled to happen between February 2026 and August 2026. This work includes developing the design and a program logic model (task 1), reviewing and developing analytic tables related to administrative performance data (task 3), conducting a literature review (task 4), developing data collection tools (task 2) and conducting system-wide organizational and participant interviews and participant survey (task 5), a key findings memo (task 6), a draft final report (task 7), and a final report and briefing (task 8). Furthermore, our team needs to complete a sufficient amount of data collection and analysis in time to allows for the completion of the key findings memo by June 30, 2026, with remaining reporting occurring by the end of the project. These tasks, our proposed timeline for their completion and the staff assigned to lead each task is as follows.

To accomplish these tasks on time, SPR has first proposed the highly qualified leadership team listed above, all of whom have extensive experience leading large and small projects for federal, state, and local clients, delivering work according to contracted timelines. We have adopted this large leadership team approach since much of the task work will need to occur simultaneously to ensure all data collection and analysis tasks can get completed in time for use in the development of the key findings memo. Having strong leadership staff in these roles helps to ensure the ability for work to move forward quickly alongside other work. Fortunately, SPR also has a deep bench of additional, strong researchers who will fill out each task team and allow for the completion of all data collection, analysis, writing, and other work involved in completing each of these tasks in a timely manner.

Importantly, these team members do not work alone; SPR has adequate resources and infrastructure to support our team. Our proposed team will rely on SPR’s strong project management and quality assurance infrastructure to meet EWDD’s expectations including timely delivery of all final report deliverables within the specified timeline and budget. Our management approach adheres to the following four tenets:

• Coordinate work to ensure that project needs are met. SPR project teams have established procedures to achieve outstanding technical results. The foundation of these procedures is a clear delineation of responsibilities and roles at the outside of a project and clear communication through ongoing meetings and informal communication mechanisms. We also engage in regular communication with the client to keep them fully informed about progress and to collect ongoing feedback.
• Ensure adherence to a schedule agreed upon with the client. To ensure that the team meets scheduled milestones and deliverables, project directors and managers establish clear timelines, work plans, and other internal communication tools (like project planning within Teams) for initiating and completing project activities, to which all team members are expected to adhere. These staff are responsible for monitoring project progress overall and any reporting to clients.
• Ensure work is completed within budget. Our team is committed to producing high-quality products in the most cost-efficient manner, by deploying skilled personnel who are well matched to the tasks they are assigned, engaging in close project coordination to avoid duplicated efforts and bottlenecks, and maintaining business systems to support project monitoring and cost control (e.g., Unanet), reviewing regular project budget and expenditure reports.
• Early identification and solving of technical and contractual problems. Each of the mechanisms above provide a means for identifying emerging problems early before they become acute. Additionally, project directors meet (individually) with senior and administrative staff at quarterly project review meetings to discuss what issues or challenges projects may be facing. SPR is firmly committed to deploying additional organizational resources—additional personnel, staff with special qualifications, or other interventions—for timely and effective problem resolution.

With this proposed approach to our staffing and management, SPR offers a well-equipped and highly experienced team who can help EWDD enact its envisioned analysis.