Employment

A significant way that opportunity youth can be engaged in their communities is through the workforce. Engagement in the workforce, including apprenticeships, not only benefits the youth individually but also their community. Youth disconnect from the workforce is a complex issue, however there are several practical strategies that can be taken to support opportunity youth:

• Listen to youth. Opportunity youth are the experts on their own experiences. Therefore, it is important that they are engaged in the process of working towards reconnection. 
• Provide training. For many opportunity youth, employment is a new experience. It is important that appropriate training be available to address issues throughout the process of applying for and maintaining employment.
• Work collaboratively to create and maintain supportive policies and opportunities. For employers and programs it is important that they work together to create opportunities for youth to engage with the workforce. Additionally, data collection and evaluation across agencies and employers can be vital to maintaining support.¹
• Develop careers, not jobs. Helping opportunity youth discover career pathways and preparing them for meaningful, lucrative careers is crucial to long-term success for that individual and potentially future generations of their family and community. For example, the WIOA Youth Formal Program focuses primarily on out-of-school youth and includes 14 program elements that are required to be made available to youth participants.
• Address practical barriers. These could include transportation costs, providing access to technology so they can participate in virtual opportunities, making sure they have an interview and work appropriate outfit(s), providing meals, printing hard copies of their resume, and setting up job fairs so that youth can conveniently explore work options in one place.²

Resources

Strategic Use of Resources, Funding, and Partnerships to Support Disconnected Youth
This case study describes how federally-funded technical assistance helped the Children's Services Council (CSC) parlay lessons learned from past programs serving disconnected youth into a more expansive effort to align funding for this population across all county systems and services. This case study describes how the CSC in South Florida did just this, leveraging and pooling multiple funding streams to maximize impact for disconnected youth.

Supportive Services
Supportive services, one of the 14 program elements for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 (WIOA) youth program, are services that enable an individual to participate in WIOA activities. These services enable an individual to participate in WIOA activities (such as, but not limited to, assistance with transportation, child care, housing, health care, educational testing, and work-related tools). Access Part 1 here. Access Part 2 here.

WIOA Youth Program Fact Sheet (July 2020)
This factsheet provides information on the Youth Program of WIOA.

Youth Programs
This is a collection of resources related to youth employment from the U.S. Department of Labor. These resources include information and programs designed to help youth gain and maintain connections with the workforce, and successfully make the transition to adulthood and careers.

Get My Future
Get My Future is a mobile-friendly web application that helps youth plan their careers, explore education and training options, and search and apply for jobs.

Building Financial Capability in Youth Employment Programs
This report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau provides an overview of lessons learned during a roundtable convened in collaboration with other federal agencies on the Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC). The roundtable focused on three components: integrating financial education into youth employment programs, establishing partnerships with employers, and identifying effective strategies to collaborate with financial institutions.

References

¹ Lewis & Gluskin, 2018; Uvin, 2016
² Lewis, 2019