Opportunity Youth: Disenfranchised Young People

social development, mental health, physical health, and safety. 29 A limited number of studies
have measured outcomes in these areas and they are mentioned when applicable.
Employment-Focused Programs
As mentioned above, youth employment rates are at historic lows. Though some stereotypes
portray disconnected young people as being uniformly high school dropouts, according to
a recent study, 40 percent of the disconnected young people surveyed already had secondary
credentials (high school diplomas or high school equivalency credentials). 30 Though they had
completed their secondary education, they were not connected to work or postsecondary education.
The same survey found that, regardless of their education levels, more than half of disconnected
young people were looking for full-time jobs. 31
This section focuses on evidence regarding programs that specifically target employment.
While many programs combine education and career training (and these are discussed in
later sections of this paper) there are few programs that have employment as their primary focus.
The populations served by these programs tend to fall at the “least disconnected” end of the
disconnection spectrum, as many of them require participants to have a secondary credential to
enroll.
Year Up, which operates in 14 cities, provides participants ages 18 to 24 with six
months of training in information technology and finance, followed by a six-month internship.
Participants need to have secondary credentials to qualify for the program. Each participant receives
a stipend tied to a performance contract during both the training and internship phases.
Staff advisers help young people with both personal and professional issues, and each participant
is also paired with a mentor. A small random assignment evaluation found that Year Up
participants had higher earnings and were more likely to be working full time a year after program
participation than members of a control group. 32 At the three-year mark, the program
group had higher earnings, mostly as the result of higher wages. However, the program group
was less likely to be attending college than the control group. The three-year follow-up findings
should be interpreted with some caution, as the study had a short embargo period (the period
during which control group members were prevented from joining the program); nearly a third
of control group members ultimately ended up participating in Year Up. 33 Efforts to learn more
about the effectiveness of Year Up are under way. Year Up has eight locations participating in
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education
study (formerly the Innovative Strategies for Increasing Self-Sufficiency study), a ran-
29 Langford, Badeau, and Legters (2015).
30 Bridgeland and Milano (2012).
31 Bridgeland and Milano (2012).
32 Roder and Elliott (2011).
33 Roder and Elliott (2014).
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