Transforming Lives
IM&M+ has been building its evidence-base for nearly 10 years. It has been evaluated annually since its launch in New Brunswick in 2014. It was evaluated by Blueprint ADE in an Ontario Centre for Workforce Innovation project, three pilot site deliveries. In 2020, it was tested in 24 sites across 6 provinces through a research project funded by the Future Skills Centre (interim results below). Currently, it is embarking on a comparative analysis in 14 sites in 5 provinces. Findings for this research will be published in 2024.
Highlights from New Brunswick (2014 - )
The New Brunswick Government’s analysis of 3-years of province-wide delivery of IM&M+ shows compelling evidence that participants move more effectively through the service system toward employment and that it breaks cycles of dependence on social assistance (IM&M Evaluation Report, 2018).
Since IM&M+’s province-wide introduction in New Brunswick in 2014, 2,200 people are no longer on social assistance. Conservatively, that is a 15-to-20-million-dollar savings for the government over a seven-year period.
Highlights from the Ontario Pilot (2018)
The Ontario Centre for Workforce Innovation’s (OCWI) evaluation of IM&M+ pilots replicated the findings from New Brunswick.
The Ontario research also showed significant changes in career goal clarity and perceived ability to overcome barriers to career goals.
- Almost 40% of participants in the OCWI pilots were employed or in education 2-3 months after the program;
- 31% were employed and 80% of those had found permanent positions.
- Almost all participants (88%) were addressing employability needs through employment services (69%), housing supports (56%) and/or mental health services (25%).
In the Ontario pilots, IM&M+ demonstrated improved participant psycho-social health outcomes (i.e., self-esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control, motivation, resilience, positive building, accessing resources, networks and allies, belonging/mattering) and foundational career management skills (i.e., self-awareness, skills and strengths identification, goal setting and achieving, vison for the future).
- 93% showed gains on at least one of these aspects of well being:
- 33% felt positive about the future more often
- 47% felt discouraged about how things were going in their life less often
- 47% felt nervous or anxious less often
- 67% felt unmotivated or like they didn't have more energy less often
Pan-Canadian Outcomes - Future Skills Centre Research (2020-2021)
In 2020, the Future Skills Centre (FSC) awarded a grant to CCDF to further study In Motion and Momentum+ across multiple jurisdictions, with diverse groups and delivery agencies. In this project, IM&M+ participant profile included:
- 91% who were unemployed when entering the program; more than half had been out of work for at least a year
- 71% of participants were receiving social assistance
- 7% were receiving Employment Insurance
- 25% did not have a high school diploma
Interim Results: Participant Outcomes
Overall, participants were very satisfied with IM&M+. Around 90% of the participants found it useful, and most participants indicated they would recommend the program, and almost half of those (46%) had already recommended it to someone at program exit.
Participants shared positive experiences in IM&M+, including, but not limited to, relationship buildings, greater awareness of themselves, a more positive outlook, and increased self-esteem. Additional findings included:
- Most participants increased their self-assessed pre-employability skills throughout the program
- Around one-third of participants enrolled in further training programs or education at program exit
- 16% of participants reported positive employment outcomes shortly after finishing the program.
- After 3 months, 21% of participants were employed
** A full report on the findings will be available in September 2023.
IM&M+ Made me Feel Better.
IM&M+ really made me more focused, have more confidence again. I felt lost, I felt like a loser, I can’t deal with my career---just a lot of things, so IM&M+ made me feel better.
IM&M+ Participant
I Enjoyed... Communicating with People from Different Backgrounds
The part I enjoyed most myself is just communicating with different people of different backgrounds.
IM&M+ Participant
Increasing Hope
In the Future Skills Centre project, we are using a standardized tool (i.e., the Employment Hope Scale) to measure the degree to which IM&M+ participants develop greater hope towards their career and life goals. The Interim results show that participants had a statistically significant increase in employment hope scores between program start and completion. A higher employment hope score indicates that participants are feeling more empowered to reach their employment and financial goals, which is very promising.
Future Research
In 2021, the Future Skills Centre awarded CCDF a grant to do a comparative study of IM&M+ and current service delivery provision for clients with pre-employment needs. The results of this research will be available in 2024.
Evaluations and Reports
I Repeatedly Hear of Increased Confidence
When I chat with participants I repeatedly hear of increased confidence or a positive feeling of knowing they are able to make better decisions for themselves.
Cindy Leggot, IM&M+ Facilitator, Regina Work Preparation Centre, Inc