There are more than five million young people (age 16-24) in the US who are not currently connected to school or work - commonly referred to as Opportunity Youth by a growing movement of workforce development and youth development practitioners, funders and partners.
Need for Opportunity Youth Schools Project
A research base is emerging regarding the most promising practices for recruiting, enrolling, meeting social-emotional needs, educating and improving the workforce skills and career navigation efforts of Opportunity Youth. But sustainable solutions for improving education outcomes, postsecondary success and longer-term career pathway success with Opportunity Youth remain very limited.
Also, the vast majority of organizations enrolling Opportunity Youth currently provide programming (academic, workforce, and leadership/service) outside of formal school contexts and without access to public education funding dollars that could dramatically improve learning outcomes and long-term financing & sustainability.
Appetite from Opportunity Youth program leaders to create and operate high quality schools remains high. However, capacity & infrastructure to navigate public education systems (alternative school contracts with districts and OY charter schools with various authorizers) remains very limited in most communities. Also, the policy landscape for launching, funding, and creating coherent accountability systems for OY schools is not strong in most states, districts and communities.
Why Us & Why Now
Connection with Communities
Many program leaders in the OY space have proximity to low-income communities, families and young people that should be recognized and celebrated. Most OY program leaders also have professional backgrounds in workforce development and/or youth development. While these remain critical components for the success of OY, many current OY program leaders have less experience with education, teaching, and learning.
Networks
There are existing national and regional networks of Opportunity Youth programs. They represent a wide variety of theories of change and large variance in terms of programmatic offerings for OY practitioners. There are currently no national learning communities directly focused on high quality policy & practice efforts for launching, sustaining, improving, and achieving strong education outcomes with learners and leaders of OY schools.
Proven Results
At the local level, most cities lack the capacity to locate and develop supportive relationships with OY, and to take those young adults through a process of school re-enrollment. In response to this need, the NLC Reengagement Network has grown organically to include 35 local sites and two statewide networks. Much of this work overlaps with opportunities for statewide policy solutions with Opportunity Youth schools and also with geographic communities of focus for participating partners and potential investment partners.
Relationship Building
We have deep relationships and trust with dozens of community leaders and program leaders who have interest and capacity to become school leaders. Many of these community leaders have strong community relationships, deep commitments to OY learners, and demonstrable Racial Equity & Inclusion (REI) impacts in their communities over many years. Many also have a strong interest in launching schools to improve learning outcomes and strengthen sustainability.
Characteristics of Opportunity Youth Schools
Our Strategy
Local Research to Understand Size and Scope
Size & Scope of Opportunity Youth Population in Community
Comprehensive Planning
Facilitating school planning, application, launch, operations, sustainability and positive impact on teaching & learning outcomes, and Improving relationships with districts and charter authorizers
Partnership Work
Collaborating toward city, state and regional investments and partnerships for shared data, programming, planning and improved policy conditions
Robert Clark, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Newark Opportunity Youth Network (NOYN), has spent over 30 years in youth workforce development, designing and implementing systems-level strategies to reengage and improve long-term outcomes for opportunity youth. Over the course of those years, he has served as National Program Advisor to YouthBuild USA and as a Senior Advisor to Newark Public Schools while at the same time growing YouthBuild Newark from a small direct service program into a multitiered intermediary, now doing business as NOYN.
Sangeeta Tyagi
Sangeeta Tyagi, Ph.D., is Director of the Center for Youth and Communities at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Her work focuses on workforce, youth, and community development, education, and the organizational development of mission driven organizations. She brings decades of senior organizational development experience in leading national organizations and helping to grow the quality and capacity of networks. Her areas of interest and expertise include building cross-sector strategies for under- and unemployed youth and adult workers, postsecondary education access and success for first-in-family students, and youth engagement and leadership.
In addition to the U.S., she has worked in India, Kenya, and Ethiopia with local anchor partners on youth employment ecosystems and strategies and on innovation, scale, and sustainability of youth employment strategies.
Prior to her role at Brandeis, she was President of YouthBuild USA, a national network of over 230 community-based youth and workforce development programs where she had also served as Chief Program Officer, and Vice President for Education and Workforce Development during her 14 years tenure in the organization.
Additionally, since 2017 Sangeeta has served as Senior Advisor at Spring Point Partners, a social impact organization that seeks impactful change through grantmaking, investing, and professional and organizational development. In that role she coaches grantee partner CEOs and works with the organization’s program team on strategy and impact.
Sangeeta teaches in the MPP programs at the Heller School, chairs the Women, Gender, and Sexuality concentration, and is an invited external member of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at MDRC. Earlier, she served as the Founding Board President at the YouthBuild Charter School of California for 13 years. She has a PhD in Sociology from Brandeis University.
Scott Emerick
Based on 15 years of work learning with Opportunity Youth in Philly and Boston, Scott Emerick is currently working with partners to launch the Opportunity Youth Schools Project. He most recently served as the CEO of Friends of YouthBuild Philly overseeing fundraising, financing and construction plans to complete the school community’s new and permanent home in North Philly. As the Executive Director of YouthBuild Philly, he oversaw the programming, operations, fundraising, and capacity building for the largest single-site Opportunity Youth program in the US. Before coming to YouthBuild Philly, he served as Senior Vice President for Education, Career, and Service Pathways at YouthBuild USA. In this role he oversaw program initiatives related to improving postsecondary access and success; implementing quality education programming; increasing STEM and career development capacity; and helping educators respond to learning differences.
Scott has provided technical assistance for school districts on teaching quality and teacher retention. He also has professional experience as an educator, as an advocate for improved teaching and learning conditions, and as a management consultant for clients investing in education. He earned a B.A. degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
