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DURHAM ORANGE EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING PROGRAM: FOLLOW-UP FINDINGS <br /> Contact Efforts <br /> In mid-December, 1977, the Durham-Orange Employment and <br /> Training office staff began a follow-up of selected parti- <br /> cipants in an effort to evaluate the success of our training <br /> programs. We were seeking those adults who terminated from <br /> Title I programs between July 1, 1976, and June 30, 1977; <br /> this group numbered 356, Of these, nine were found to be <br /> re-enrolled, This left 347 clients to be followed-up. <br /> The counseling staff handled the client contacts and con- <br /> tinued their efforts through mid-February. Each client who <br /> could not be contacted'by phone was sent a letter explaining <br /> our reasons for follow-up and asking that the participant <br /> reply to several follow-up questions. Stamped envelopes <br /> for return of the questionnaire were enclosed. Many did <br /> respond to these letters. <br /> Halfway through this 2-month contact effort, we sent a <br /> list of unlocatable former participants to the Employment <br /> Security Commission, Social Services, and Durham Technical <br /> Institute to solicit their help in finding these clients. <br /> Of the 347 clients sought, 190 were in fact found.; See <br /> Table 1). This find-rate of 55% is less than that of the <br /> first follow-up (75%). Some counselors suggested that <br /> the find-rate was lower because some persons were in our <br /> training programs for so short a time that they did not <br /> come to identify with our agency; so that, when these parti- <br /> cipants received our questionnaire, they felt no obligation <br /> to respond. <br /> Staff changes led to some former clients being contacted <br /> by staff members who were unfamiliar to the client. In <br /> fact, of the group not found, 22% were being sought by <br /> counselors who had not worked with the client before, whereas <br /> for the found'group this percentage dropped to 16%. <br /> Comparison of Those Found to Those Not Found <br /> Any attempt to extrapolate the findings from the group of <br /> found clients to the whole group that we sought must be <br /> preceded by a comparison between the found group and the <br /> not-found group (unless the found group constitutes so large <br /> a percentage of the whole that those not found can be dis- <br /> regarded for purposes of data analysis; this is essentially <br />