Timely Research Spurs Expansion Strategy for New York Organization

Per Scholas, a charity in the Bronx, N.Y., that focuses on job training, is moving ahead aggressively on its plans to expand during the recession. The organization hopes to open a new branch in the first quarter of 2010 and add a new city every eight to 12 months, says Plinio Ayala, the group’s president.

Started in 1995, Per Scholas trains low-income people to become computer technicians. Participants attend a 15-week, 500-hour training program, aligned with the needs of employers that work in partnership with the charity. In the program, students learn to recycle computer equipment and recondition the best computers to sell to low-income families.

Expansion plans, which have been in the works for a year, are fortuitously timed: In May, Public/Private Ventures, a nonprofit think tank in Philadelphia, released a Charles Stewart Mott Foundation-financed study that spotlighted the program’s success. Researchers analyzed the impact of three job-training programs, including Per Scholas. The study concluded that participants in the three programs, on average, worked more hours, received higher wages, and earned about $4,500 more annually than people who didn’t participate in the training.

The charity began a Miami pilot project in 2004 to learn to run a satellite office. It also learned to adapt its program to local conditions. Compared with the Bronx, for example, more Miami participants had part-time jobs or child-care challenges. Instead of a 15-week, full-day program, the Miami program offers an 18-week, half-day training curriculum.

Now Per Scholas is identifying three more cities for an expanded pilot effort, says Mr. Ayala. A start-up city would need to find $2-million for three years’ of running the program, which would train 300 individuals, he says. The charity has been talking to potential supporters in Baltimore and Cleveland, which are leading candidates for duplication. The organization has found a local champion in Cleveland who will provide seed money once a feasibility study is complete, and Mr. Ayala says he has had a number of encouraging discussions with foundations.

But as yet, nothing has been finalized, and in fact the group has scaled back even more ambitious expansion plans it had announced early this summer. Says Mr. Ayala, “I underestimated how much is involved in laying the groundwork for one of these launches.”