These services and supports can be provided by community-based organizations, other skill training providers, and community colleges. © All content seen is copyright Jobs for the Future, 2020. Opportunity youth need our our partnership towards developing a vision for their inclusion in society and support for their restlessness. to the Jobs Initiative’s accomplishments around cultural competence and backbone can facilitate partnerships between employers and the range of This interview with our CEO David A. Harris sheds some light on what this work and this event means for us. programs more strictly focused on occupational skills, and through system-involved as your target population, such as youth who are In some communities, the collaborative has a youth These other resources have similar tips and ready-to-use tools to use. There are several online career exploration programs you might consider using. To complement this data, it can also be helpful to consult job posting data—or real-time labor market information—which can provide up-to-date insights into specific characteristics of employer demand for particular occupations, including the skills, credentials, and other qualifications, if available. in developing the community strategy—in particular, helping to design We must be offering second chances, and critically look at the policies and systems that create barriers for these youth to advance. This research brief from Heartland Alliance provides an overview of promising practices and principles to guide youth employment programs. More. Reuters, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window), Global Agenda Council on Youth Employment, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. I have a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, shaking hands, in my office. You can’t go forward without hope and anger. These include: Opportunity youth-serving organizations can play a central role in preparing their young people for technical training programs that lead to middle-skill jobs. Urban Institute has done a report on digital badging. foundational principles and goals: A backbone, its collaborative partners, and employers each play specific roles in connecting opportunity youth to employment. Charles Eddy, the Council’s lead in the criminal justice reform area, and our intern Marcellus Gibson have been developing a guide to the reentry support programs and services that exist on many East Bay college campuses. The following is a At the Council, we’ve been focused on opportunity youth (people aged 18-24 who are disconnected from school and work) for the past few years. A key to CBO success is establishing and maintaining positive relationships with opportunity youth to help guide them on a path to employment and build skills such as initiative, self-agency, and accountability. population. While the majority of youth expresses to see its future outside agriculture, many good job opportunities on and off the farm remain in agriculture. Read the Impact Hiring report to learn about the promise of game-based talent analytics. Measure of America has conducted an analysis of youth disconnection rates for states, metro areas, rural and urban areas, and counties as well as by gender and race/ethnicity. For JFF's Employer Engagement Toolkit provides step-by-step instructions for engaging and building relationships with employers. Look at publicly available data on current employment, typical education and training requirements, occupational forecasts, and salary/wage trends to better understand current and potential future opportunities within relevant occupations. community, and the implications for what you find. themselves. Systems-engaged youth have so much potential but so many barriers to opportunity. As part of this analysis, it is useful to consult data on relevant industry sectors to better understand the specific workforce needs and opportunities of leading industries in the region. We’re just at the beginning of some real breakthroughs in this area. The following video describes how manufacturers in Hartford are working with Capital Workforce Partners and the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology to identify, train, and advance employees from diverse backgrounds in this fast-growing field: This brief from Its report describes these evidence-based strategies and includes links to resources in the areas of: A number of organizations specialize in helping employers improve retention practices. This was true in my early career running a youth development organization in the Bronx and it’s true now in Oakland and across the nation. Employers have a critical role to play in creating policies that make it possible for youth to both work and continue their education. The return on investment is significant: research indicates that it costs businesses one-fifth of an employee’s salary to replace that worker. that are already in place in your community. We also need targeted remedies that help these youth get to the same starting position as other young people (in the race of life). The Council, through our collaboration with practitioners and our experience in systems thinking, is well positioned to impact this space in the near future. You can use this interview protocol to talk to your area Chamber of Commerce or other economic development entity about regional needs and opportunities. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. It includes a description of, This Corporate Voices for Working Families paper This toolkit is designed to help these partners work together to support youth on a path to careers. You will then want to But he has skills and drive and found a Back on Track program to help him prepare for a career in IT. be to develop a stronger relationship with system leaders. This toolkit is currently being updated! Measure of America has done analysis of the opportunity youth population in almost 100 cities in the US, in Zeroing in on Race and Place: Youth Disconnection in America’s Cities. Barriers and Promising Approaches to Workforce and Youth Development for Young Offenders, Policy Profiles - Annie E. Casey Foundation, From Options to Action: Roadmap for City Leaders to Connect Formerly Incarcerated Individuals to Work - IssueLab. 2) improved seedling from the research institute of the Country. This paper shows the vital role of community-based organizations in addressing this dual crisis, which particularly affects low-income and minority young adults. poised to develop a sectoral strategy. how Capital Workforce Partners, the backbone organization for the This is a brief recap of some of the lessons offered up. The country is facing a dual crisis in youth unemployment and low postsecondary completion rates. To provide career exploration and work-based learning to opportunity youth, you should consider where these activities would be delivered and supported. The following video shows serve opportunity youth (such as GED programs or alternative schools) and already have a relationship with the system leaders you may want to look The need for more data and stories to really communicate the realities of this  population effectively. About the 100,000 Opportunities Initiative, Minnesota’s Community Reintegration model, Connecting Youth and Business: A Toolkit for Employers, pre-apprenticeships programs and services, Trade Adjustment key step in understanding your regional workforce is identifying Paths to employment for opportunity youth fall into four categories, which are the sections of this module. Most young people who are jobless live in developing countries. Convinced? These resources are intended to support leaders who are implementing and scaling up work-based learning in states and regions across the Pathways to Prosperity Network. Once you have settled on a preliminary strategy, you can start to map out the roles of various partners in your approach. Here are some samples: Labor market information provides a useful starting point to understand specific occupations and sectors that represent strong opportunities for opportunity youth. In that vein, we’ll be having young people from the California Opportunity Youth Initiative cities shape the agenda for the next COYN (the California Opportunity Youth Network) event. We will post here when the toolkit is fully restored. David has spent the majority of his professional career as a nonprofit manager and consultant, as well as a grantmaker at several of the nation’s leading philanthropic organizations. example, there may be a broad-based coalition that is concerned about The backbone organization can help build partnerships between employers and the range of organizations that work with opportunity youth. sector-focused strategy is an approach to helping participants pursue Employers can benefit from learning about specific strategies for hiring opportunity youth. More cities are considering how this work advances economic, racial and social equity. Ideally, we would explain the experience of opportunity youth in the simplest way and this would allow adults to relate to this concept personally; “Hey, I know a young adult like that!”, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window), Boys and Men of Color Career Summit – Not Your Ordinary Job Fair, Invest in Youth: Pathways to Success Event, Savvy Consumer – What we’re learning so far, Oakland Crime Maps for 2011 by Police Beat, Violence and Stress in Oakland’s Neighborhoods, #AspenInstitute #JeffChang #CleoParkerRobinsonDance #BiancaMikahn #OY #OpportunityYouth #OYF (1), #UCBerkeley #UndergroundScholars #DegreesOfFreedom #JusticeReinvestment #JusticeReform (1). internships for young people that you may leverage to ensure Employers may not know about the financial benefits of hiring an opportunity youth. This toolkit for health care employers makes the case for hiring this population and provides clear strategies for recruitment and hiring. Twice a year the Aspen Institute’s Forum for Community Solutions brings together over 25 communities from across the country, who are partners in their national Opportunity Youth Initiative. This resource guide presents working models of successful employer engagement and lessons for securing and sustaining partnerships with employers, in addition to helping education and training providers fully realize the value of such partnerships. Regional economies and labor markets have become more complex, rapidly changing and difficult to navigate, particularly for unskilled workers and especially for opportunity youth who usually lack the social networks and social capital to connect with the labor market. Creating a path for them back into the workforce requires a community approach that considers what specific populations of opportunity youth to target, the existing employment pathways on which to build, and the political will and system supports that offer opportunities for leverage.