Year of Opportunity for Opportunity Youth: Looking Ahead from 2015
Late teenage years and early 20s are pivotal times for all of us regardless of what you were (or perhaps were not) doing. More than likely it involved classroom shenanigans or some form of a job. Today in the United States it is estimated that 6.7 million of your youth ages 16–24 are neither in school nor employed. How can it be that so many youth are unable to connect to a self-sustaining future while so many American employers complain of a lack of available talent? Are there available solutions today we can scale? In addition to costing billions in taxpayer dollars, the tragedy of lost potential inspired me to learn more about this complex issue to better understand how we might promote effective solutions.
Through crowd-funded support from friends I was able to do just that aboard the Millennial Trains Project (MTP) last June. A cross-country train journey that enables participants to study an issue of interest at the grassroots level in seven cities across the United States, MTP sets out to uncover America’s new frontiers of community building. What better way to understand community building than looking at organizations that successfully empower our rising adults to build their own futures?
Throughout the course of the MTP journey, I met with Opportunity Youth-focused organizations to better understand the best practices of the field. How have some organizations, described by YouthBuild founder Dorothy Stoneman as the “best kept secret in America” equipped at-risk youth with the professional and personal skills needed to viably compete in today’s job market?
Addressing the needs of Opportunity Youth requires a community dialogue between all sectors: government, business, and non-profit. The challenges faced by Opportunity Youth are complicated, and their solutions call for the same level of complexity. All programs I visited take a multi-pronged approach — tackling education, employment needs, and life skills. By initiating dialogue around the needs of Opportunity Youth with multiple partners at the table, the organizations share a common vision where Opportunity Youth are engaged, healthy, and self-sufficient marked by outcomes such as high school completion, reconnection and recovery, post-secondary education and vocational certification.
A series of interviews and meetings with the below organizations resulted in four major themes: focus locally, learn nationally, understand systemic links, and engage everyone.
Focus Locally: Regional Differences
Each region has different economic and cultural realities. Meet your population, both Opportunity Youth and potential employers, where they’re at. It’s their needs that dictate program focus.
Learn Nationally: Opportunity Youth in the Spotlight
2015 was a strong year for Opportunity Youth focus, with efforts from the White House’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative to the Aspen Institute’s Opportunity Youth Network, and corporate-heavy initiatives such as 100,000 Opportunities Initiative. National studies offer learnings for local communities to implement and learn through collaborative coalition building initiatives.
Understand the System: Predecessors and Alternatives
Having a complex systemic understanding is critical when addressing challenges faced by Opportunity Youth. This is a social issue encompassing our education system (trade schools included), economy (unions included), family life, healthcare, and criminal justice.
Engage Everyone: We All Have a Role
Whether through mentorship, monetary support, company engagement, advocacy and the list goes on, we all have a place at the table of ensuring that our rising adults have promising futures. How? Start by checking out the organizations below.
A special thanks to the organizations that took the time to share their experiences. I encourage learning more about their inspiring, necessary work through the links below.
- Opportunity Youth Collaborative at the Alliance for Children’s Rights (Los Angeles)
- Para Los Niños (Los Angeles)
- Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce Hire LA’s Youth
- United Way of Greater Atlanta
- Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives (New Orleans)
- Liberty’s Kitchen (New Orleans)
The opportunity to develop the still untapped talent of so many of our youth is one we cannot afford to overlook. Here’s to a 2016 filled with opportunity for all.
Additional Resources:
To learn more about MTP visit http://millennialtrain.co/.