[Excerpts]
Project QUEST has had the ongoing political and community backing of COPS/Metro Alliance... that helped launch the program in 1992 and worked to ensure that Project QUEST has ongoing financial support. Project QUEST’s strategies can and have been replicated in other communities. The key is considerable, reliable financial support that can be used flexibly to meet community members’ needs. A few key results are as follows:
- Project QUEST participants earned $54,000 more than the control group during the 14-year follow-up period.
- Project QUEST and the community colleges invested an average of $16,244 (2022 dollars) in each participant over the fourteen years following study enrollment, resulting in a 234 percent return on investment. Moreover, program graduates moved out of poverty and into the middle class, earning close to $60,000, on average, in the final year of the study.
- Participants ages 35 and older at the time of enrollment experienced the greatest benefit from Project QUEST, earning a remarkable $138,577 more, on average, than their counterparts in the control group over the fourteen years.
Fourteen Year Gains: Project QUEST's Remarkable Impact, Economic Mobility [pdf]