CLIENT CASE STUDY
Responsible Business Initiative for Justice (RBIJ)
Project: RBIJ Delaware Equitable Hiring Initiative
Sector: Nonprofit
Focus: Workforce Development
Project Length: 18 Months
Equitable Hiring Initiative Pilot in Delaware
The Delaware Equitable Hiring Initiative was designed to connect local businesses with historically overlooked talent in Wilmington, Delaware, ultimately uplifting communities with quality job opportunities. Funded by JPMorganChase (JPMC) and Capital One and headed up in its first year by the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice (RBIJ), the project honed in on three Delaware zip codes to train businesses in equitable hiring practices and recruit untapped talent.
This pilot project took a systems change approach to addressing a local problem. The project team brought in several partners to address different elements of the project. They employed Credible Messengers, local leaders who have helped inform the context of the project and worked to build relationships and trust among project partners. They brought in experts from Jobs for the Future to train the employer partners in evidence-based, equitable hiring curricula. They also partnered with local community-based organizations (CBOs) to recruit local talent, and the CBOs were supported and trained by a workforce development organization. Employers will begin recruiting talent later in 2026 in the implementation phase of the project.
Services
Development of data collection tools or measures, including surveys, interviews, and focus groups
Program evaluation strategy and design
Our approach
Elevate partnered with RBIJ to design and implement an evaluation plan for the employer engagement and systems change aspects of the pilot. We worked with the RBIJ team to develop a Theory of Change and a Logic Model, and then designed data collection strategy and tools with audiences, intended outcomes, goals, and use in mind.
Our goals for this project were multifaceted. For the employer evaluation, we sought to assess learnings from the employer equitable hiring trainings and track changes in hiring practices at the employer level. Our other priority was to evaluate the elements of the system that have created change in Delaware's overall hiring landscape. This project was a combination of a programmatic design with a systems change model.
We worked alongside the RBIJ team to design flexible evaluation methods that assessed both elements of the pilot. We conducted focus groups with employers at the midpoint of the pilot, and implemented an employer survey to capture insights at the endpoint. We also conducted midpoint and endpoint reflection sessions with partner teams to qualitatively assess the collaborative dimensions of the pilot. We treated these sessions as opportunities for partners to reflect on collaboration, leadership, communication, project workflow, model design, and other elements of the project that have affected the system overall.
Throughout this process, we remained committed to transparently sharing our findings with the pilot partner team. Findings from the pilot year informed model changes going into the implementation year. Some insights spoke directly to objective outcomes and learnings, and some provided a look into the ripple effects of this kind of project on the entire Delaware hiring ecosystem. Working with a team and project as unique as this one allowed us to customize services to fit our clients’ and partner teams’ needs. We are excited to see the impacts of this work on the Delaware community as implementation continues in the year ahead.
“As a trusted partner, Elevate Consulting’s independent evaluation has given EHI valuable insights to strengthen and refine the pilot’s workforce development efforts — offering actionable analysis to inform effective systems change for employers, participants, and the broader community,”
Project Team
Jessica Gibbons
Chief Practice Officer, Project Principal
Bailey Via
Consultant, Project Lead
“I have enjoyed our continued partnership with the RBIJ team! This project has also given us a wonderful opportunity to engage with community partners across the country as we support their efforts in the equitable hiring space. I have no doubt that their hard work training employers and supporting CBO partners will make an impact on the hiring landscape in Delaware.”
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