Who are "opportunity youth," and why do they need targeted support?

photo by Ryan Aréstegui

Research tells us that the human brain doesn’t fully develop from its youth into its adult version until about age 24. This knowledge adds an important perspective to the modern focus on early childhood education as an essential component of child development. The prolonged growth of the human brain is a clear indicator that older children—especially those who may not have enjoyed quality care early in their lives—also deserve targeted support, and that programs that help these children are critically important.

Investing in "opportunity youth" is a win-win

There are currently about 6.7 million "opportunity youth" across the United States, or youth between age 16 and 24 who are disengaged from school and work (sometimes called "disconnected youth"). The Opportunity Index provides the number of these youth in each state, among other relevant statistics. Estimates place the tax loss of these outside-the-workforce youth to be $11.3 billion annually. Additionally, these youth disproportionately increase costs associated with crime, health and welfare, creating an estimated social cost burden of $37,000 per youth per year. Appropriate support for these youth can help reduce hefty societal costs while expanding options for these youth: a win-win situation.

The federal government is taking strides to support older youth development, especially focusing on opportunity youth. The 2014 reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA, formerly WIA), which encompasses workforce opportunities for all ages, provides funds to help older youth ages 14-24 engage in productive careers, and targets 75 percent of those youth funds to opportunity youth. The law contains an additional requirement that 20 percent of these funds be spent connecting youth to internships and work experience. Skills USA reports that 64 percent of youth make their career decisions based on their own experience and interests.

Also included in WIOA law is an innovative “Pay for Success” provision, based off the expectation of high economic returns associated with helping opportunity youth. The provision allows local workforce boards to allot 10 percent of their funding to programs in which government, non-profit, and for-profit entities take on the costs of helping these youth. These entities are reimbursed or provided with a performance bonus when they achieve an agreed upon outcome or measure of success, like a number of months of continuous, full-time employment.

Afterschool or summer learning program providers who already support at-risk youth should consider obtaining support via WIOA, through either the regular program model or pay-for-success model. WIOA funds can also be used to support certain populations of in-school youth. Community agencies and savvy programs can often “braid” funds between various youth dollars, such as those from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), as well as those from private investments, foundations, and local business. Performance Partnership Pilots provides an additional means of serving these youth through facilitating combining funding streams. WIOA provides $2.6 billion in state formula grants, and youth funds of about $830 million.

To see what opportunities may be available, you can connect with your local workforce investment or workforce development boards, the state and local decision-making bodies responsible for the use of WIOA funds. The boards in your area can be found by searching here.

Two events highlight personal and programmatic elements of WIOA

Two recent events, Innovative Workforce Development Strategies for Out-of-School Youth, hosted June 15 at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, and Realizing Youth Justice: Advancing Education, Employment and Youth Empowerment, on June 20th at the National Press Club, highlighted some of the issues, successes, opportunities and challenges in supporting opportunity youth in their pathways toward careers.

Climates of belonging and customer centric thinking

One theme emerging throughout the two events was establishing inviting climates for youth: listening to the youth; designing systems that feel welcoming, connecting youth to their families and communities, meeting youth where they are and seeing youth as assets.

Leo Miller, Regional Administrator for Region 2 at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), cited examples where youth were reluctant to take on work experiences in houses where their parent wasn’t working. According to Miller, this tension indicates that youth development has to happen alongside adult development. Miller sees this focus from the youth’s perspective as “customer centric” change. In Albany, NY the workforce board established a separate youth center when it found that school settings were too formal to encourage youth involvement. Lori Carter Vassor, Manager of Youth Systems at Philadelphia Works, came to a similar realization. "Our youth are saying: if it looks too much like school, thanks, but no thanks,” she said.

The topic of race was also confronted at these events. Miller, of the DOL, said, “there is a very uncomfortable racial component of unemployment, and we have to admit it if we are going to get meaningful.” While the majority of opportunity youth are white, America's black youth are more likely to qualify as opportunity youth than white youth. This phenomenon may be due to the disproportionate interaction of black youth with the school discipline and juvenile justice systems. Kisha Bird, Youth Policy Director at CLASP, referred the audience to Michelle Alexander’s book, “The New Jim Crow” for those seeking to further explore this issue.

Other speakers at the event shared their experiences as opportunity youth who successfully completed college. Amanda Matos of New York City’s Young Women’s Initiative, spoke of feeling “icky with the privilege” she gained in being admitted to and attending Columbia University. The feeling dissipated a bit when she found ways to engage with her community. Morning Star Gali, a Tribal Historic Preservation Officer with the Put River Tribe, recounted her experience finally making it to college but finding “so few familiar faces.” These personal stories reinforced the notion that truly rich, welcoming and engaging environments can support opportunity youth not just academically or technically, but culturally and socially.

Helping opportunity youth cope with trauma

Youth experiences with trauma and system induced traumas were also a major focus of the events. Distressingly, many opportunity youth and youth who enter the juvenile justice system have themselves been victims of trauma. For girls, who make up a slightly larger percent of opportunity youth, studies document a sexual abuse to juvenile justice pipeline that is quite dramatic. Nationwide, about 31 percent of girls in the juvenile justice system have been abused, and 45 percent have been exposed to five or more adverse childhood experiences, known as complex trauma. For boys the numbers are also distressing: 7 percent have been abused and 24 percent have experienced complex trauma. 

A study of girls in Oregon’s juvenile justice system found that 93 percent had been victims of sexual or physical abuse. Moreover, among people with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), 20 percent had difficulty keeping a job, while among people with no reported ACEs, only 6 percent had difficulty maintaining work. These statistics speak to the greater need to deal with past trauma in order to move these youth forward.

Trauma, speakers explained, may not come only from a child’s environment, but also from the systems that communities, programs and governments design to serve those children. When we force children into stressful environments or perpetuate a sense of non-belonging, we add additional strain. To combat this occurence, many states are now working on efforts to reform their juvenile justice systems and support children in alternative ways.

West Virginia passed SB 393, which requires first time juvenile offenders to be treated in community based environments and prohibits their incarceration. Judge Teske of Georgia pointed out that in his district’s Community Based Second Chance Program, which keeps children in their communities rather than placing them in a detention center, the rate of recidivism (return to prison) is 6 percent, while the state recidivism rate for juvenile offenders is 65 percent. Because of the high rates of re-offense after detention, sending kids to prison, Teske reports, creates more victims in a community, not less. In contrast, it is the community based programs that are “smart on crime”.

While the topics were heavy, both events conveyed a sense of optimism. One survey found that 72 percent of opportunity youth were optimistic about their own futures. One audience member asked: how do we get the general public, businesses, funders, schools etc. to be equally optimistic? The response from the panel: community partners must engage with opportunity youth, so both sides can better understand each other.

Some tools and resources for those working with opportunity youth

• Casey Skills Assessment: Life Skills Self-Evaluation Tool for youth
• Cities United: 84 Mayors working to reduce violence in their cities to half their current levels by 2025
• Civic Justice Corps: Department of Labor funded program for formerly incarcerated or court involved youth
• CLASP Questions to Consider in WIOA and Opportunities for Action: Help advocates at the state level look at what their plans include and overlook.
• Life After High School: Resource from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond to walk students through the decision making process for options after high school/
• National Student Bill of Rights: Students define what they need for their development in their school age years
• Opportunity Index: Statistics in your state and local area on poverty, disconnected youth, education, affordable housing, crime and more.
• Performance Partnerships Pilots (P3) Hub: Resources on proposal development and information on current grantees.
• PowerCorps Program: AmeriCorps program for opportunity youth up to age 26 providing 6 months of full time work and 3 months of intensive job placement.
• Project U-Turn: A public-private partnership in Philadelphia for dropout prevention and youth re-engagement.
• Social Innovation Fund: Designing the scaffolds of the Pay for Success Systems.
• Three Rivers Workforce Development Board: Youth developed video game software on job preparedness and other topics.
• Youth First: Initiatives to end youth incarceration state by state.