Guest post by Lauren Bierbaum
Recently, the Aspen Institute announced a series of grants to bring 6.7 million young Americans back to education and the workforce. The Institute’s Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund (OYIF), whose name refers to the millions of young people between the ages of 16 to 24 who are neither enrolled in school nor participating in the labor market, is making an initial commitment of $6 million to 21 founding partners. These partners are in turn charged with harnessing the power of cross-sector collaboration to improve educational and employment outcomes for vulnerable young adults.
In the New Orleans region, which we serve, over 14,000 young people are disconnected from school and work. Though we have made great strides in reforming our schools, young people in our community who feel unsafe or unsuccessful in traditional educational settings still suffer from horribly inadequate safety nets. We have a growing economy, but lack the necessary infrastructure to develop young New Orleanians into a sustainable local workforce. We are a dynamic, culturally rich city, but still have not created equitable opportunity for all our youth.
Expanded Learning Perspectives 