19F - WIA STRATEGIC PLAN 2013-2017

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Executive Summary The Return on Investment (ROI) for services provided by the Santa Ana WORK Center during the calendar year 2008 is estimated to be 147 %. This represents a significant ROT given the severe economic recession and increased costs incurred by the WORK Center. Specifically, in the Santa Ana- Anaheim - Irvine metropolitan division, the unemployment rate increased to 5.3% which is the highest since 1994 while non -farm employment declined by 2.0 %, the largest decline since 1991. Given the relatively high local. unemployment rate and decline in employment in year 2008, the ROI remains high even though it is lower than prior estimates. Additionally, the cost of providing services to WORK Center clients increased during the 2008 calendar year as a result of transitioning from a "Universal Access" model to an "Integrated" model halfway through the calendar year. The Integrated Model requires that everyone who enrolls at the WORK Center, participates in an assessment to determine their needs and receives individualized services tailored to meet those needs. This process is more costly than the "Universal Access" model where clients utilized services at their own discretion. The ROI was calculated from estimated benefits and costs for providing the integrated services. The estimated costs of providing services to Santa Ana WORK Center clients and operating the Center were provided by the WORK Center staff. The costs include personnel costs, operating expenses, overhead costs, fixed costs and other costs including sending participants to vocational schools for training. The estimated benefits are based upon data collected through a Telephone Survey conducted by the Social Science Research Center (SSRC) at CSU Fullerton. The Santa Ana Work Center furnished the SSRC with a database including contact information for 5,843 individuals who first registered as Santa Ana WORK Center clients during the 2008 calendar year. The SSRC administered the first of two telephone surveys at the end of each quarter to 400 clients randomly selected from this database. Individuals who registered to use the WORK Center during the first three quarters were surveyed again at the conclusion of the 2008 calendar year. Some important benefits from the WORK Center services provided to clients include (1) additional tax revenue from individuals who get a new job, (2) additional tax revenue from the businesses (and their owners and employees) patronized by these individuals, and (3) a reduction in public support received by WORK Center clients. The ROI estimate is conservative because there was insufficient data to estimate the third benefit of a reduction in public support because few survey respondents provided useable data and the amount was relatively small compared to all other benefits. 19F -277