Program Evaluation

By Rebecca Maynard The Teenage Parent Demonstration (TPD) was a major, large-scale, federal demonstration initiative sponsored by the U.S.

During the 1989 VISTA Reauthorization Hearings, Congress expressed interest in raising the proportion of VISTA volunteers with college degrees. As part of this effort, ACTION endeavored to make college students more aware of the VISTA program and increase applications from college campuses through a targeted marketing campaign. This campaign took place during the 1991-1992 school year.

This report examines a small but key aspect of Channeling — the costs of operating the demonstration itself. The ten sites incurred costs of $23 million as they prepared for and later provided case management and long-term care services to clients between September 1980 and June 1984.

The principal finding of this report is that Channeling led to an increase in total costs for clients, including costs for medical and long-term care services and costs for shelter, food and other daily living expenses.