Bridges to Employment in El Salvador

This report presents the findings of the final performance evaluation of Bridges to Employment (referred to throughout this document by the shortened name, Bridges) project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in El Salvador. Bridges is a five-year, $33.9 million project implemented by DAI Global (DAI) and its subcontractors, Plan International and JBS International, Inc.

Bridges was designed to help increase and improve employment for vulnerable youth living in selected high-crime municipalities. USAID’s development hypothesis states that “when at-risk youth have access to a high-quality, holistic, and market-relevant package of services and support that utilize and maximize their strengths, they are more likely to improve their income and employment situation.” (DAI 2016). To help increase and improve employment, Bridges has three main objectives: (1) increase stakeholder engagement to improve the enabling environment for workforce development (WFD) and employment; (2) increase institutional strengthening to improve the quality of WFD services that effectively respond to market demand to insert at-risk youth into target economic sectors; (3) increase youth engagement to improve workforce readiness.