FINAL REPORT

Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth

THE WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL

COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS

for

JUNE 2012

Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction Letter from Chair 3

Introduction Letter from Youth 5 

List of Council Members 7

Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 

Introduction 9

Effective Community Solutions 11

Focus Issue: Opportunity Youth 17

Core Strategies and Recommendations 22

Strategy One: Drive the Development of Successful Cross-Sector

Community Collaborations 22

Strategy Two: Create Shared National Responsibility and Accountability 25

Strategy Three: Engage Youth as Leaders in the Solution 27

Strategy Four: Build More Robust On-Ramps to Employment 30

Closing Summary 43

Appendices 44

Appendix A: Stakeholder Outreach Summary 45

Appendix B: United Way Community Conversation Summary 47

Appendix C: Examples of New Efforts Under Way 51

Appendix D: Bibliography 55

Corporation for National and Community Service 1201 New York Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20525 serve.gov/communitysolutions

THE WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL

COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS

for

•

Patricia Stonesifer

Chair, White House Council for 

Community Solutions, philanthropic advisor

COUNCIL CHAIR:

First Lady Michelle Obama

HONORARY CHAIR:

COUNCIL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR:

COUNCIL MEMBERS:

•

Byron Auguste

Director, Social Sector Office, McKinsey

& Company

Diana Aviv

President and CEO, Independent Sector

Paula Boggs

retired executive, Starbucks; 

philanthropist; musician

Jon Bon Jovi

musician, Bon Jovi; Board Chair, 

Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation

John Bridgeland

President and CEO, Civic Enterprises

James Canales

President and CEO, 

James Irvine Foundation

Scott Cowen

President, Tulane University

John Donahoe

President and CEO, eBay Inc.

Michael Fleming

Executive Director, 

David Bohnett Foundation

David Friedman

Director and Chair, 

Edison Properties/HNB Private Trust

Jim Gibbons

President and CEO, 

Goodwill Industries International Inc.

Michele Jolin

Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

Michael Kempner

Founder, President and CEO, MWW Group

Steven Lerner

Founder and Managing Partner, 

Blue Hill Group

Maurice Miller

Founder and CEO, 

Family Independence Initiative

Laurene Powell Jobs

Co-Founder and Board President, 

College Track

Norman Rice

CEO, Seattle Foundation

Kristin Richmond

Founder and CEO, Revolution Foods

Judith Rodin

President, Rockefeller Foundation

Nancy H. Rubin

Board Member, 

National Democratic Institute

Paul Schmitz

CEO, Public Allies

Jill Schumann

Principal, ParenteBeard LLC

Bobbi Silten

Senior Vice President, Global Responsibility 

Gap Inc.; President, Gap Foundation

Bill Strickland

Founder and CEO, 

Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild

Laysha Ward

President, Community Relations and 

Target Foundation; Chair, 

Corporation for National and

Community Service

Kathy Bendheim

Office of the CEO, Corporation for

National and Community Service

President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

It is a great honor and privilege to submit to you the report of the White House Council for Community 

Solutions (the Council), Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth. When you created the Council by 

Executive Order in December 2010, you asked the Council to help identify and raise awareness of effective 

community-led solutions to our nation’s most serious problems. The Council engaged in intensive factfinding and listening efforts and ultimately chose to address an area of critical importance to America’s 

future: putting every young person on a clear path to economic opportunity.

During today’s challenging economic times, too many families and communities across the country are 

struggling to make ends meet and to simply do more with less. In fact, the unemployment rates for young 

Americans—who are typically less skilled and new to the workforce—are at historic highs. However, your 

administration’s commitment to creating jobs for Americans is moving the needle and helping create new 

opportunities for all Americans to get back on track. The Council’s work complements other administration 

efforts by focusing on creating opportunity where it is needed most: in support of opportunity youth.

The Council concluded that it could draw attention to the promise of these young people and the actions 

that can tap their potential to contribute to our economy and society. The Council sees these young 

people—the 6.7 million 16 to 24 year olds (roughly one in six in this age group)—who are disconnected 

from both school and jobs as opportunity youth. Through our outreach efforts, we heard directly from and 

were struck by the tremendous response from citizens, cities, and community and corporate partners around 

the nation who stand ready to take action and do something to help make a difference in the lives of these 

young people.

Opportunity youth are isolated from the paths that can lead to economic independence. Moreover, the cost 

to the nation of inaction is high. According to a study commissioned by the Council, when lost revenue and 

direct costs for social supports are factored in, taxpayers will shoulder roughly $1.6 trillion over the lifetimes 

of these young people. Absent action, their futures are at risk—and collectively our nation’s future prosperity 

is put at risk. 

The report presents recommendations for successful community-led solutions across the nation: driving 

development of more successful community collaboratives to harness the potential of these young people; 

creating shared national responsibility and accountability; engaging youth as leaders in the solution; and 

creating more robust on-ramps to employment. We know that with training and support, opportunity youth 

hold enormous promise to infuse our economy with new skills and leadership, and they are eager to accept 

responsibility for their lives. The Council believes that the actions identified in this report, coupled with a 

nationwide awareness of the issue, will lead to significant progress toward putting all of our young people on 

a path to prosperity. At a minimum, we believe implementing the Council’s recommendations will lower the 

number of opportunity youth by 10 percent.

On behalf of the members of the White House Council for Community Solutions, we thank you for this 

opportunity to identify and address a matter of critical importance to the nation. 

Patricia Stonesifer

Chair

White House Council for Community Solutions

Youth Leadership Institute

28 Second St., Suite 400, San Francisco, CA 94105 • (415) 836-9160 • www.yli.org

White House Council for Community Solutions

1201 New York Ave., NW

Washington, DC 20525

Dear White House Council Members:

Thank you for inviting us to review this report and contribute to its innovative recommendations for actions to improve the lives of 

the nation’s opportunity youth.

As young people who have faced challenges in our lives, we don’t often have the opportunity to be heard. When we first became part 

of the National Youth Ambassadors program organized by the Youth Leadership Institute (YLI), we were not sure that our opinions 

would matter.

As we contributed to the Council’s work and developed our skills as spokespeople and leaders, we discovered that our voices do in 

fact matter a great deal. The highlight was having the opportunity to provide input on the draft of the final report recommendations 

and to see our ideas incorporated in the final report.

This note is our way of expressing our appreciation for the chance to have our say. We now know that our opinions, experiences, and 

stories do matter, and that our ideas, solutions, and work in our community will make a difference.

The three of us who attended the Summer Jobs+ Summit earlier in the year were moved by the experience. At that event, and in the 

months since, all Youth Ambassadors have become part of the national conversation on how to help opportunity youth get connected 

to education and employment pathways that ensure success and allow us to contribute to our families and our communities. As 

highlighted in the report, young people can and want to be part of designing community solutions to the challenges we face.

In closing, we want to say that we know the work does not stop here. We look forward to inspiring other youth to be problem solvers 

in their communities, and to ensuring that there is “no decision about us, without us.”

Sincerely,

The YLI Youth Ambassadors

Jairus Cater, Nashville, Tennessee

Ryan Dalton, New Orleans, Louisiana 

Trevor Easley, Columbus, Ohio

Francisco Garcia, Hacienda Heights, California 

Torres Hughes, Chicago, Illinois 

Shaakirah Medford, New York, New York 

Jose-Luis Mejia, San Francisco, California 

Brian Nguyen, Seattle, Washington

Hannah Sharp, Indianapolis, Indiana 

Brittany Woods, La Mirada, California

Hashim Yonis, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 7

LIST OF COUNCIL MEMBERS

First Lady Michelle Obama, Honorary Chair, White House Council for Community Solutions

Patricia Stonesifer, Chair, White House Council for Community Solutions, philanthropic advisor

Byron Auguste, Director, Social Sector Office, McKinsey & Company

Diana Aviv, President and CEO, Independent Sector

Paula Boggs, retired executive, Starbucks; philanthropist; musician

Jon Bon Jovi, musician, Bon Jovi; Board Chair, Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation

John Bridgeland, President and CEO, Civic Enterprises

James Canales, President and CEO, James Irvine Foundation

Scott Cowen, President, Tulane University

John Donahoe, President and CEO, eBay Inc.

Michael Fleming, Executive Director, David Bohnett Foundation

David Friedman, Director and Chair, Edison Properties/HNB Private Trust

Jim Gibbons, President and CEO, Goodwill Industries International, Inc.

Michele Jolin, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

Michael Kempner, Founder, President and CEO, MWW Group

Steven Lerner, Founder and Managing Partner, Blue Hill Group

Maurice Miller, Founder and CEO, Family Independence Initiative

Laurene Powell Jobs, Co-Founder and Board President, College Track

Norman Rice, CEO, Seattle Foundation

Kristin Richmond, Founder and CEO, Revolution Foods

Judith Rodin, President, Rockefeller Foundation

Nancy H. Rubin, Board Member, National Democratic Institute

Paul Schmitz, CEO, Public Allies

Jill Schumann, Principal, ParenteBeard LLC

Bobbi Silten, Senior Vice President, Global Responsibility Gap Inc.; President, Gap Foundation

Bill Strickland, Founder and CEO, Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild

Laysha Ward, President, Community Relations and Target Foundation; Board Chair, Corporation for National 

and Community Service

Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 9

Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth

INTRODUCTION

Across the nation, individuals and community groups are working together to find new and effective solutions to 

local problems. Recognizing that the best ideas do not come from Washington but from communities, President 

Obama created the White House Council for Community Solutions in December 2010 by Executive Order to 

encourage the growth and maximize the impact of innovative community solutions and civic participation. 

The White House Council for Community Solutions (the Council) was charged with: identifying key attributes of 

successful community solutions; highlighting best practices, tools, and models of cross-sector collaboration and civic 

participation; and making recommendations on how to engage all stakeholders in community solutions that have a 

significant impact on solving our nation’s most serious problems. 

Executive Order 13560 also directed this diverse group of leaders from various sectors to identify specific policy areas 

in which the federal government is investing significant resources that lend themselves to cross-sector collaboration. 

The Council, therefore, focused its attention on the broad question of what drives successful community solutions: 

those making greater than 10 percent progress on a metric. Next it focused on applying these findings to create 

substantial opportunity for disconnected youth. The Council chose this often overlooked population because of the 

untapped potential of these young people and the high cost to our nation. The 6.7 million disconnected youth1

cost our nation approximately $93 billion in direct and indirect social costs in 2011 alone, making this issue both 

compelling and urgent. While all youth have potential, connecting these youth to education or employment will 

change the trajectory of their lives, as well as benefit their community and our nation as a whole.

In its outreach and listening sessions, the Council discovered these young people have energy and aspirations and 

do not view themselves as disconnected. To the contrary, they are eager to participate in their communities, in fact, 

to own the development of their lives. They want to create a successful future but need the tools and opportunities 

to create that success. To acknowledge their untapped potential, the Council chose to refer to this population as 

opportunity youth.

1 The literature, including reports for the U.S. Congress, characterizes young people 16 to 24 years old who are out of school and work as 

disconnected youth.
10 White House Council for Community Solutions

The Council approached its work in three phases:

Phase One: Fact-finding and listening efforts to establish knowledge base. (December 2010-June 2011)

The Council reviewed data-driven research and conducted extensive outreach to understand successful 

community-based groups of organizations working together (community collaboratives) and the demographics, 

needs, and existing programs for opportunity youth. The most compelling input came from young people 

themselves, but the Council also spoke with more than 300 organizations, families, mentors, businesses, social 

sector organizations, and government agencies that serve youth. The Council also conducted site visits to 

community collaborations that are achieving significant progress on persistent community issues.

Phase Two: Leveraging knowledge base to develop and launch resources. (June 2011–January 2012)

In fulfilling elements of the Executive Order, the Council identified gaps in information and resources to 

support community solutions. As a result, the Council developed the following resources to build awareness and 

assist communities. (All resources are available at http://www.serve.gov/council_resources.asp#maincontent.)

•	 Community Collaboratives Toolbox. Includes best practices, tools, and models for effective collaborative 

approaches. 

•	 Employer Tool Kit: Connecting Youth to Employment. A simple guide for employers to create a mutually 

beneficial youth engagement program. 

•	 The Economic Value of Opportunity Youth. A report on the size of the population of opportunity youth, the 

cost of inaction to taxpayers and society, and the benefits of reinvesting in these young people. 

Phase Three: Building awareness, shining the spotlight on what works, advocating for greater systemic 

change to support success, and listening to feedback. This knowledge was used to develop the Council’s 

recommendations to the President. (January 2012–June 2012)

The Council worked across sectors to build awareness of the data, tools, and the path forward through personally 

leveraging a wide variety of media opportunities, participating in Opportunity Community Conversations 

hosted by more than 30 United Way local affiliates, and participating in a White House Youth Summit to bring 

youth, key leaders, and change-makers together to commit to action.

Through its work, the Council has fulfilled its mandate and presents in this report its key findings and resulting 

recommendations to drive the creation of more successful collaboratives in communities across the nation. This 

report also provides an assessment of opportunity youth in our nation, as well as four core strategies – driving 

the development of successful cross-sector community collaborations, creating shared national responsibility and 

accountability, engaging youth as leaders in the solution, and building more robust on-ramps to employment – with 

accompanying recommendations for reconnecting these youth to successful careers and civic lives that will benefit 

themselves as well as their communities and our nation as a whole.
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 11

EFFECTIVE COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS

Consistent with the administration’s view that the most innovative, 

effective solutions come not from the federal government but from 

communities themselves, the Executive Order directed the Council to 

identify key attributes of effective community-developed solutions to 

our national problems. 

Recognizing that despite good intentions and examples of success, 

most community efforts fail to achieve significant results, the 

White House Council for Community Solutions worked with The 

Bridgespan Group to identify collaboratives that have actually moved 

the needle, or created more than a 10 percent improvement on a 

community-wide metric, to understand what makes them effective, 

and to determine whether these key characteristics could be adopted 

by other communities seeking greater impact. The analysis identified 

a dozen communities across the country where all sectors have pulled 

together to make more than 10 percent progress on a community-wide metric, and more than 100 additional 

communities that are making progress in this direction.

Individual nonprofit services can be fragmented and dispersed, with each organization typically serving a limited 

population with specific interventions. Funders then measure success at the organizational level, rather than the 

broader community level. These individual efforts are critical to the lives and well-being of the people they serve 

and are important examples of success to demonstrate that progress is possible. But overall, these approaches are 

not resulting in significant change at a community-wide level, which is frustrating to all: taxpayers, funders, policy 

makers, service providers, and the beneficiaries themselves.

America has a long history of community revitalization efforts that were groundbreaking and changed the lives 

of many individuals, helping shape the work of successful efforts today. Communities can point to numerous 

examples of collaborations created to solve local problems. But only recently have we begun to see needle-moving 

collaboratives that are data-driven and highly focused on aligning existing resources toward a common set of targets 

for community-wide change.

To better understand these collaboratives, The Bridgespan Group and Council members conducted extensive 

research to understand this work and inform its recommendations, including a review of more than 100 highpotential collaboratives, site visits to a number of community collaboratives that have achieved significant needlemoving change, interviews, and a day-long meeting with leaders of community collaboratives and national 

organizations that support their work. 

We have to recognize 

that to transform 

young people’s lives, 

it’s not individual programs 

or individual interventions; 

it’s communities and 

supportive relationships.

– Paul Schmitz

CEO, Public Allies
12 White House Council for Community Solutions

To ensure evidence-based results, each profiled collaborative underwent a structured due diligence process. 

This involved external research and exploratory conversations with the collaborative followed by site visits or 

in-depth discussions. While the Council sought to be inclusive in its search, the resulting list of proof points is 

not exhaustive. 

Through this research, the Council developed a Community Collaborative Framework (see Exhibit 1) that serves as 

a road map for success for other communities across the country to effect large-scale change.

Based on these findings, the Council believes that community collaboratives with these identified attributes should 

be replicated to address complex, persistent social issues in communities across the nation.

Exhibit 1: Effective Community Solutions

CORE

PRINCIPLES

CHARACTERISTICS

OF SUCCESS

SUPPORTIVE

RESOURCES

What type of collaborative

are we talking about?

Collaboratives with:

• Aspiration to needle-moving 

(e.g., 10 percent +) change 

on a community-wide metric

• Long-term investment in 

success

• Cross-sector engagement

• Use of data to set the 

agenda and improve over 

time

• Community members as 

partners and producers of 

impact

• Shared vision and agenda

• Effective leadership and 

governance

• Deliberate alignment of 

resources, programs and 

advocacy toward what works

• Dedicated capacity and 

appropriate structure

• Sufficient resources

• Knowledge

• Tools

• Technical assistance from 

peers/experts

• Policy

• Funding

What do successful 

collaboratives have in common?

What do they need

to thrive?
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 13

CORE PRINCIPLES OF NEEDLE-MOVING 

COLLABORATIVES

In addition to sharing a commitment to needle-moving 

change, these collaboratives had the following operating 

principles in common:

•	 Commitment to long-term involvement. Successful 

collaboratives make multi-year commitments because 

long-term change takes time. Even after meeting goals, a 

collaborative must work to sustain them.

•	 Involvement of key stakeholders across sectors. All relevant 

partners play a role, including decision-makers from 

government, philanthropy, business, and nonprofits, 

as well as individuals and families. Funders need to be 

at the table from the beginning to help develop the goals 

and vision and, over time, align their funding with the 

collaborative’s strategies.

•	 Use of shared data to set the agenda and improve over time. 

Data are central to collaborative work and are the guiding 

elements for collaborative decision-making.

•	 Engagement of community members as substantive 

partners. Community members are involved throughout 

the process in shaping services, offering perspectives, 

and providing services to each other, not just as focus 

group participants.

Community Collaborative Success: 

Increasing High School Graduation 

and College Enrollment Rates

The Strive Partnership, a cross-sector 

collaboration focused on “cradle-to-career” 

education, has achieved an increase of 10 

percent on high school graduation rates and 

16 percent on college enrollment since 2006. 

Cincinnati’s students were falling behind in 

college readiness, with Ohio ranked 42nd 

in the nation for bachelor’s degrees. The 

president of the University of Cincinnati joined 

KnowledgeWorks, a community foundation, 

and the local United Way to understand the 

problem and plot a path forward. They created 

Strive, made up of multiple collaborative 

networks, linked to an overall student road 

map of success, and outlined research-based 

milestones for kids from cradle to career. A 

shared vision, deep research, and data-driven 

planning and evaluation were several important 

factors that made the program succeed. 

Strategically aligning existing resources 

against cradle-to-career needs has led to 

40 of the 54 identified indicators moving in a 

positive direction with several including college 

enrollment rates increasing by more than 

10 percent.

White House Council for Community Solutions. 

Case Studies of Effective Collaboratives. 2011. 

http://www.serve.gov/new-images/council/pdf/

comm_collabs_case_studies.pdf
14 White House Council for Community Solutions

CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESS OF 

NEEDLE-MOVING COLLABORATIVES

After conducting deeper research into the 12 needle-moving 

collaboratives, five common elements emerged as essential to 

their success. (See Exhibit 1) 

•	 Shared vision and agenda: finding the common 

denominator. Developing a common vision and agenda are 

two of the most time-consuming and challenging of all the 

tasks a community collaborative undertakes. They are also 

two of the most vital. Establishing quantifiable goals can 

catalyze support and build momentum, and developing a 

clear road map can help organizations look beyond narrow 

institutional interests to achieve community-wide goals.

•	 Effective leadership and governance: keeping decision 

makers at the table. Successful collaboratives need a strong 

leader to fully engage stakeholders and coordinate their 

efforts. The biggest challenge is not so much bringing 

decision makers to the table, but keeping them there for 

years of hard work ahead. To achieve such a feat, it is 

important for the collaborative’s leader to be respected 

highly by the community and viewed as a neutral, honest 

broker. In addition, the leader must work to create and 

maintain a diverse, inclusive table where both large 

organizations and small grassroots organizations have 

powerful voices.

•	 Alignment of resources toward what works: using data to adapt continually. Regardless of their breadth, 

successful collaboratives pursue a logical link among the goals they seek, the interventions they support, and 

what they measure to assess progress and success. Collaboratives are required to be adaptive, adjusting their 

approaches based on new information, changes in conditions, and data on progress toward goals. At times, 

collaboratives may push for new services to fill in gaps. But much of the work of successful collaborations focuses 

Community Collaborative Success: 

Reducing Teen Pregnancy

Teen Pregnancy Prevention Oversight 

Committee, a nonprofit-led collaborative, 

resulted in a 31 percent drop in the teen 

birthrate over five years. In 2006, Milwaukee 

had one of the highest birth rates among teens 

in the United States. Convened and staffed 

by the United Way of Greater Milwaukee, 

the collaborative was co-chaired by the editor 

of the local Milwaukee paper and the health 

commissioner. Together, they set an ambitious 

goal to reduce the rate by 46 percent by 2015. 

Leadership and governance were critical 

elements: as a trusted and neutral party 

organization with its own staff and funds, the 

local United Way was positioned uniquely to 

convene the group. The 31 percent drop in the 

birth rate to date is significant as national rates 

have been steady, and the local poverty rate has 

increased dramatically with the recession.

White House Council for Community Solutions. 

Case Studies of Effective Collaboratives. 2011. 

http://www.serve.gov/new-images/council/pdf/

comm_collabs_case_studies.pdf
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 15

•	 on “doing better without spending more,” or getting funders, nonprofits, government, and business to align 

existing resources and funding with the most effective approaches and services to achieve their goals. In many 

cases, this will mean working together to target efforts toward particular populations, schools, or neighborhoods 

rather than operating in a more ad hoc manner.

•	 Dedicated staff capacity and appropriate structure: linking talk to action. Having dedicated staff is critical to 

success, as is having a staff structure appropriate to the collaborative’s plan and goals. There is no predetermined 

right size. Effective staff teams can range from one full-time strategic planning coordinator to as many as 

seven staff for more complex, formalized operations. In general, dedicated resources focus on convening and 

facilitating the collaborative, data collection, communications, and administrative functions.

•	 Sufficient funding: targeted investments to support what works. Collaboratives require funding both to 

maintain their dedicated staff and to ensure that nonprofits have the means to deliver high-quality services. 

Even though the first job of most collaboratives is to leverage existing resources, in every needle-moving 

collaborative studied, there was at least a modest investment in staff and infrastructure. This investment often 

included in-kind contributions of staff or other resources from partners. Sustainable funding itself becomes one 

of the collaborative’s key objectives, as does “funder discipline”– sticking with the plan rather than developing 

individualized approaches or continuing to fund activities that are not part of the strategy.

SUPPORTIVE RESOURCES

The concept of collective impact has been growing over a 

number of years. However, when members of The Bridgespan 

Group convened leaders in collaboration, they pointed to 

several gaps in knowledge and tools.

Building on the substantive work of pioneering collaborative 

efforts that launched the evolving field of collective impact, the 

Council chose to focus its efforts on these gaps: life stages of 

a community collaborative; best practices within each stage; 

dedicated capacity required for success (in terms of staff time 

and talent, committees, oversight, etc.); and best practices in 

community engagement for greater impact.

Community Collaborative Success: 

Reducing Violence

Operation Safe Community, a local 

government-led collaborative, reduced violent 

crime by 27 percent and property crime by 32 

percent over five years. The city of Memphis, 

Tennessee, struggled with violent crime in 

2006, and ranked number one in the nation. 

Operation Safe Community was launched by 

the district attorney to bring law enforcement 

and other sectors together to address the issue 

by setting specific goals, establishing baseline 

data, and developing detailed plans in 15 areas. 

As a result, the murder rate is the lowest in 30 

years.

White House Council for Community Solutions. 

Case Studies of Effective Collaboratives. 2011. 

http://www.serve.gov/new-images/council/pdf/

comm_collabs_case_studies.pdf
16 White House Council for Community Solutions

As a result of these articulated needs, the Council developed specific tools and a set of 12 case studies of 

collaboratives that have demonstrated change for all communities interested in launching or enhancing existing 

collaborative efforts. These resources are available at www.serve.gov.

Community Collaborative Success: Improving Elementary Test Scores

Parramore Kidz Zone (PKZ), a neighborhood-based education collaborative, resulted in a 15 percentage point jump in 

reading and 21 percentage point jump in math for elementary students performing at or above grade level. Parramore was 

Orlando’s toughest neighborhood when Buddy Dyer became the city’s mayor in 2003. Data painted a bleak picture of the 

1.4-square-mile neighborhood adjacent to downtown Orlando. Percentages of elementary students scoring at or above 

grade level on the FCAT, Florida’s standardized test, were 45 percent in English and 27 percent in math in 2007. Mayor 

Dyer provided effective leadership and governance by aligning resources toward what worked and treating the community 

as partners in determining strategies to address this issue. PKZ now uses community feedback and survey results to design 

programming. Another key to PKZ’s success is the use of data to drive the agenda. PKZ now uses teen pregnancy rates, 

reading and math proficiency scores, readiness for school by kindergarten indicators, and juvenile arrest rates to gauge its 

progress and direct its efforts.

Both reading and math scores have improved dramatically to 60 percent and 48 percent, respectively. And while Orlando’s 

overall juvenile crime rate declined by an impressive 67 percent from 2006 to 2010, Parramore showed significantly better 

results with an 81 percent reduction.

White House Council for Community Solutions. Case Studies of Effective Collaboratives. 2011. http://www.serve.gov/new-images/

council/pdf/comm_collabs_case_studies.pdf
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 17

FOCUS ISSUE: OPPORTUNITY YOUTH

The Council focused on opportunity youth as the issue of critical national importance where the complexity and 

urgency of the problem requires coordinated effort to make meaningful progress. In applying the framework of 

successful community collaboratives to the problem, the Council first conducted research to better understand this 

population of young people. 

UNDERSTANDING OPPORTUNITY YOUTH IN OUR NATION TODAY

The number of opportunity youth is large and diverse. As the nation strives to boost our economic 

competitiveness—and to put every American on a path to success—too many young adults (one out of six) are 

disconnected from education and work. 

•	 In the summer of 2011, the unemployment rate of youth 16 to 24 years old was more than 18 percent or 

twice the overall unemployment rate; for young African Americans and Hispanics it was 30 percent and 20 

percent, respectively.1

•	 Opportunity youth represent diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. While being disconnected is both a 

consequence and cause of poverty, many of these young people come from families of moderate means. In fact, 

while three out of five opportunity youth reported that they grew up in a poor or working class family, the other 

two said their families were middle class or better. 

Youth are ready and eager to be a part of the solution. Council listening sessions and United Way Opportunity 

Community Conversations found that disconnected young people are assets and need to be supported to address 

their challenges, but are often not engaged by decision-makers. These youth want to be actively involved in 

developing solutions for themselves. A recent report, Opportunity Road: The Promise and Challenge of America’s 

Forgotten Youth, by Civic Enterprises and America’s Promise Alliance in association with Peter D. Hart Research 

Associates, confirmed the Council’s findings. This study included in-person interviews with 613 disconnected youth 

in 23 locations across the United States in August 2011. Survey respondents were between the ages of 16 and 24, in 

numbers representative of the population as a whole in terms of gender and race/ethnicity who are currently out of 

school, out of work for at least six months, have no college degree, are not disabled, not incarcerated, and are not a 

stay-at-home parent with a working spouse.2

 Key findings included:

•	 Opportunity youth are optimistic. Despite their challenges, 73 percent are very confident or hopeful about 

achieving their goals, 85 percent want a good career and job, 67 percent want a college or technical degree, and 

65 percent have a goal to finish high school or college and know they can achieve it.

•	 Opportunity youth accept responsibility for their futures. Some 77 percent believe that getting a good education 

and job are their own responsibilities.

1	 Belfield, Clive R., Henry M. Levin, and Rachel Rosen (2012). The Economic Value of Opportunity Youth. Washington, DC: Civic Enterprises.

2	 Bridgeland, John M. and Jessica A. Milano (2012). Opportunity Road: The Promise and Challenges of America’s Forgotten Youth. Washington, 

DC: Civic Enterprises and America’s Promise Alliance.
18 White House Council for Community Solutions

•	 Opportunity youth want to reconnect to work, school, and service, but they need help.

» The top obstacles that youth face to reconnecting to work are as follows: no jobs are available where they live 

(51 percent), or they don’t have enough work experience (50 percent) or education (47 percent) to get the job 

they want. But nearly one-third (32 percent) said that they do not know how to prepare a resume 

or how to interview.

» The top obstacles to reconnecting to school are as follows: cost is more than they or their families can afford 

(63 percent); they need to make money to take care of their families (48 percent); and they do not have 

transportation or they need to work and cannot balance work and school (40 percent in each case). Nearly 

one-third (32 percent) say no one showed them how to apply to college or helped them figure out how to pay 

for it.

•	 Opportunity youth point the way to reconnecting. Some 79 percent want to connect with successful peers they 

can relate to, to college professors (69 percent), and to business mentors (65 percent) to get help going back to 

school and work; 78 percent want job opportunities that enable them to earn some money and attend school at 

the same time (“Learn and Earn”).

•	 Opportunity youth want to improve life for others. Nearly seven in ten (69 percent) want to make a difference 

improving life for others, while only 3 percent report they are volunteering in their communities, suggesting 

their disconnection from school and work is impeding their desire to give back.

These young people offer an opportunity for an infusion of potential leadership and productivity in our workforce 

and economy—and they are eager to accept this responsibility. 

The cost of inaction is high. The need for broad national action and collaboration among business, nonprofit, 

and community leaders is urgent. Consider that in 2011 alone, taxpayers shouldered more than $93 billion to 

compensate for lost taxes and direct costs to support young people disengaged from both education and work. In 

their analysis The Economic Value of Disconnected Youth, researchers found that, over the lifetime of this group, the 

cost to society is estimated to be $4.7 trillion.

•	 Lifetime earnings are diminished with each missed year of work equating to two to three percent less earnings 

each year thereafter. And significant gaps in the education-work sequence of activity lead to pay and 

employability handicaps.

•	 Over a lifetime, an opportunity youth’s earnings are estimated to be $375,000 compared with a high school 

graduate’s of $712,000.1

1	 Bell, David N.F. & Blanchflower, David G., 2011. Youth Unemployment in Europe and the United States, IZA Discussion Papers 5673, 

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).; Thomas A. Mroz & Timothy H. Savage, 2006. The Long-Term Effects of Youth Unemployment, Journal of 

Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press.
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 19

There is opportunity to make a real impact. In addition to the value 

of getting these young people back on the road to successful lives, our 

country is facing a large skills gap that can be addressed partially by 

tapping the potential of this cohort of Americans. Nearly two-thirds 

of job openings in the next decade will require some postsecondary 

education.1 To fill these jobs, the United States will need to accelerate its 

progress and produce three million more students who graduate with a 

postsecondary degree by the end of this decade.2 Furthermore, to achieve 

the President’s goal to lead the world in postsecondary attainment by the 

end of this decade, we need to produce eight million more graduates than 

we currently expect to produce. 

UNDERSTANDING THE NEEDS OF

OPPORTUNITY YOUTH

In beginning its work, the Council did extensive outreach and research 

to understand the demographics, needs, and existing programs for 

opportunity youth. The following visual (Exhibit 2) provides a snapshot of 

the diversity of this population in terms of their degree of preparation for, 

as well as their ability to take up, opportunities. 

1	 Carnevale, A.P., Smith, N. & J. Strohl. 2010. Help Wanted. Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements through 2018.

2 Ibid.

All the solutions 

don’t come from 

the programs themselves, 

they really come from 

all of the support systems, 

and we need everybody 

on board. We need the 

parents, we need the 

friends, we need the entire 

community. 

– Maurice Miller

Founder and CEO, Family 

Independence Initiative
20 White House Council for Community Solutions

Exhibit 2: Opportunity Youth Segmentation

Exhibit 3: Needs and Supports Required

(Illustrates how the diversity of needs translates to a wide variety of individualized support required.)

The needs of opportunity youth are diverse and we must meet them ‘where they are’ ...

Critical

Needs

• Integrated services 

across education, 

social supports, and 

employability

• Wraparound supports 

• Alternative pathways 

to learning & 

employment

• Pathways to 

GED/high school 

completion

• Alternative training 

and credentialing 

programs

• Employment 

pathways & more 

advanced 

credentialing 

opportunities

Types of 

Support 

Required

GROUP C

Facing

obstacles outside 

education

GROUP A

Mismatched 

with employment 

system

GROUP B

Mismatched with 

education

system

GROUP D

Facing multiple 

hurdles

Types of employment opportunities open to youth increase along this spectrum

• Food access

• Housing & transport

• Health/mental health 

services

• Life skills mentoring

• Daycare

• Financial/legal 

literacy

• Alternative pathways 

to GED, diploma, or 

community college

• High school 

graduation support

• GED support

• On the job training 

and work-based 

learning programs

• Alternative 

credentialing 

programs

• Afterschool/summer 

programs 

• Community college 

collaborations

• Certification/ 

credentialing 

programs

• Internship or 

apprenticeship 

opportunities

• Starter jobs

• Opportunity for 

education within a 

stable set of 

interventions (Group 

C needs)

• Move youth a step 

‘up the ladder’ on 

path to full 

employability

C: Facing obstacles outside education

High school or better education

Unable to transition

A: Mismatched with employment system

High school or better education

Able to transition

B: Mismatched with education system

Less than high school education

Able to transition

Opportunity youth can be segmented 

based upon their degree of preparation and ability to take up opportunities.

Degree of 

Preparation

Higher

Lower

Lower Ability to Take Up Opportunities Higher

D: Facing multiple hurdles

Less than high school education

Unable to transition
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 21

In summary, the number of opportunity youth is large, and the impact of their status is not only on the individual, 

but also on the nation and requires an all-in effort to make progress. While both prevention and intervention are 

critical to the solution, the Council focused its efforts on those already disconnected as they are often overlooked 

and have great potential. The needs of opportunity youth are complex and diverse, thus the solutions require a 

multi-sector approach to create multiple paths of opportunity to reconnect. 

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING RECOMMENDATIONS

Through its research, the Council developed three fundamental principles to guide all strategies addressing the needs 

of opportunity youth:

1. Young people themselves are key to the solution. Research shows that opportunity youth have informed views 

of what works for them and their peers.

2. All sectors must pull together in the same direction to address the challenge. The barriers facing 

opportunity youth are complex and cannot be solved by families, communities, schools, employers, nonprofits, 

or the government alone. To see dramatic, measurable progress in the lives of opportunity youth requires the 

engagement of all sectors pulling together in the same direction to provide the diverse range of services needed.

3. Policies and funding must be data-driven to ensure limited resources are invested wisely. Policy and 

funding decisions need to be guided by accurate data about opportunity youth and effective interventions to 

meet their needs and challenges to ensure the most effective use of limited funding. 
22 White House Council for Community Solutions

CORE STRATEGIES

AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Opportunity youth reside throughout our nation. Without support from individuals, community leaders, and 

government, they may fail to bridge to successful careers and civic lives that will improve their own futures as well 

as those of their communities and our nation. The good news is that strong examples of success exist. While not an 

exhaustive list, the Council believes the following four strategies and recommendations have the potential to make 

significant progress on community-based issues and specifically toward ensuring more of our nation’s young people 

are on the path to prosperity:

•	 Drive Development of Successful Cross-Sector Community Collaboratives 

•	 Create Shared National Responsibility and Accountability

•	 Engage Youth as Leaders in the Solution

•	 Build More Robust On-Ramps to Employment

STRATEGY ONE: DRIVE THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUCCESSFUL CROSS-SECTOR

COMMUNITY COLLABORATIVES 

Cross-sector community collaboratives that actually move the needle—realize at least a 10 percent change in the 

problem they aim to address—share a select set of attributes and must be replicated increasingly across the nation. 

Research and practice have shown that reconnecting opportunity youth is difficult, if not impossible, within the 

bounds of a single intervention. The exception to this is when this single intervention is not really a single program, 

but a collaboration of services brought together around the needs of the youth. 

Examples of success already mentioned in this report such as the Strive Partnership and Parramore Kidz Zone have 

proven that outcomes for youth can be improved dramatically if cross-sector assets are aligned around the needs of 

the youth. In addition to these already successful collaboratives, other early efforts are also under way. The United 

Way Worldwide responded to the President’s call to action by convening a series of Opportunity Community 

Conversations. Affiliates across the country brought together diverse stakeholders to discuss how communities could 

address their community’s opportunity youth needs and shared the results of these conversations with the Council. 

While many of the hopes and concerns voiced were similar across the country—safe places, access to opportunity, 

positive role models, or mentors—many of the communities also described unique assets that could be leveraged and 

made a commitment to begin collective action.
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 23

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Prioritize Funding for Best Practice Cross-Sector Community Collaboratives. Public and private funders 

should prioritize successful collaborative efforts that exhibit best practice characteristics. We strongly support 

the $20 million Disconnected Youth Initiative proposed in the President’s 2013 budget. The departments of 

Education, Health and Human Services, and Labor are proposing a total of $20 million to develop interagency 

strategies to strengthen the impact of federal programs serving opportunity youth and identify opportunities 

for enhanced flexibility and collaboration. This initiative would take the lessons from the administration’s 

Promise Neighborhood and Choice Neighborhood initiatives that support place-based collaborative activities 

in communities across the country, as well as from other collaborative efforts such as the Department of Justice 

and Department of Education’s National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention, and adapt the work to promote 

collaborative work focused specifically on opportunity youth.

2. Promote Collaborative Use of Data Across Agency Lines. Given that the ability to access and share data 

across systems is critical to successful solutions for complex social issues, the administration should allow local 

communities access to critical data across the continuum of a young person’s life, improve the connection 

between federal, state, and local data sources, and provide clarity about the ability to share data. This increased 

access must be consistent with the intent of relevant privacy laws and ensure the responsible use of data. We 

recommend that the administration:

» Align funding for state and local data systems. The administration should encourage states and localities to 

provide more flexibility in existing programs to build, adopt, or adapt data systems and to connect disparate data 

collection efforts that receive federal funding.

» Propose changes to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). FERPA was written originally 

before personal computers were invented, and it now creates barriers to the responsible use of data across 

agency lines. We applaud the Department of Education’s new guidance interpreting the FERPA legislation 

and call on the administration to go further by recommending changes to the legislation itself. More 

immediately, relevant agencies and their privacy attorneys should provide more helpful guidance, promising 

practices, and tools (i.e., sample memorandums of understanding and consent forms) for sharing data among 

agencies for opportunity youth.

3. Align Policies to Reduce Fragmentation, Improve Efficiency, and Achieve Better Results. Communities 

often have multiple, fragmented efforts to address complex issues, each governed by a separate federal policy that 

makes it difficult to align services into a coherent strategy. The administration should simplify and align eligibility 

criteria, uses of funds, and reporting requirements across programs and agencies to allow coordination of services. 

We applaud the President’s Memorandum on Administrative Flexibility and strongly support the $113 million 

Performance Partnership Pilots for Disconnected Youth proposed in the President’s 2013 budget. These pilots 

should improve outcomes for opportunity youth by supporting state, regional, or local efforts to align funding 
24 White House Council for Community Solutions

1. from several different federal sources into coherent, efficient, and effective paths to prosperity. Pilot sites will be 

given the flexibility from federal regulations necessary to work across agency lines to achieve better efficiency. In 

areas where pilots are successful, this flexibility should be made widely available.

2. Create a National Community of Practice. The nonprofit sector should establish a community of organizations 

dedicated to identifying and sharing best practices and developing tools for organizations committed to creating 

opportunities for opportunity youth. With focused thought leadership, success could be more easily leveraged and 

replicated.

3. Replicate Successful Aspects of Youth Opportunity Grants. From 2000 to 2005, the Workforce Investment 

Act’s (WIA) Youth Opportunity (YO) grants funded 36 high poverty rural and urban communities and 

Indian reservations to improve education and labor market outcomes for youth between 14 and 21 years old. 

YO sites brought education, job training, and wrap-around support services together in a safe, accessible youth 

community center. An independent evaluation of the more than 90,000 youth participants, released by the 

U.S. Department of Labor in 2008, found that, while results varied significantly by location and by subgroup, 

employment impacts were positive for most groups, especially younger youths, blacks, and native-born youths. 

YO also had a positive impact overall on increasing the percentage of the youth population with at least an 

11th-grade education and increasing the percentage in secondary school. We recommend that the administration 

encourage funding the successful aspects of YO through WIA.

4. Create an Incentive Fund. The administration should allow for the use of existing WIA formula funding to create 

a pilot collective impact fund for communities that are committed to aligning existing community resources and 

setting specific targets to reconnect young people to school and work. This fund would be open to all proven 

programs and provide local communities with $1 million to $1.5 million for three years, to be matched at the 

local level, with resources to support data collection and other infrastructure for the community collaborative.

The Council believes enacting these recommendations will lead to a significant reduction in the population of 

opportunity youth through the replication of needle-moving community collaborations focused on their needs.
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 25

STRATEGY TWO: CREATE SHARED NATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Shared national responsibility for opportunity youth requires high-level consistent leadership to coordinate efforts 

across agencies and the collection, reporting, and sharing of rigorous data to shine a national spotlight on who these 

young people are, what they need, and what they are capable of doing. Shared accountability also requires a clear 

understanding of available public and private efforts to allocate limited resources to those programs with the greatest 

return on investment.

As demonstrated in the core principles of successful collaboratives, to create significant progress against a complex 

social issue, it is critical to create a sense of shared responsibility and accountability from all sectors. Key to creating 

shared responsibility and accountability are long-term commitment and a data-driven shared vision. 

President Bill Clinton created the President’s Crime Prevention Council to coordinate federal efforts in support of 

at-risk youth. President George W. Bush created a White House Task Force for Disadvantaged Youth. President 

Obama created the White House Council for Community Solutions. To make significant progress on the issue of 

opportunity youth, there needs to be sustained leadership to coordinate efforts across agencies and to collect, report, 

and share rigorous data to shine a national spotlight on who these young people are, what they need, and what they 

are capable of doing. 

The ability to understand the reach of an issue and have a consistent commonly defined metric against which to 

measure progress is essential to making progress on complex social issues. Because there is not a standard definition 

for this population, and there is not a single statistic or a report that is regularly published in our nation, opportunity 

youth remain a population below the radar for most national and community leaders and the public. In other 

countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom, data on so-called NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or 

Training) has been collected and reported for more than a decade.

With high-level consistent leadership on this issue and a publicly tracked, common metric, it will be possible 

to assess the range of services supporting opportunity youth and their efficacy, which is essential to creating a 

coordinated, cost-effective effort to make significant progress.
26 White House Council for Community Solutions

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Establish High-level Consistent Leadership. The need for senior-level prioritization, coordination, and 

accountability has been demonstrated in recent presidencies. Rather than recreating the function ad hoc in every 

new administration, we recommend that the federal government establish an ongoing function, possibly within the 

Domestic Policy Council, and charge this leadership with creating goals and clarifying responsibilities among agencies 

for improving outcomes for opportunity youth. The Council applauds the Department of Education’s creation of 

the Interagency Forum on Disconnected Youth along with the existing efforts of many coordinating bodies 

including the Interagency Working Group for Youth Programs and the Coordinating Council on Juvenile 

Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Their work would be better coordinated through a single entity anchored 

by an annual strategy. This strategy should encompass all efforts on behalf of opportunity youth, set clear goals, 

and detail how federal resources will be coordinated to achieve these goals.

2. Lead With Data. To create greater national, state, and local accountability for reconnecting opportunity youth 

and to empower communities with the information they need to drive change, the administration should 

begin collecting and reporting information regularly on opportunity youth through the Current Population Survey or 

American Community Survey. Such information should include the size of this population, demographics, and 

activities.

3. Evaluate Current Programs. To understand the role that the federal government itself plays in reconnecting 

youth to education and work, the administration should conduct a comprehensive survey across departments and 

agencies to understand what programs and initiatives are serving opportunity youth, how effectively they reconnect 

youth to education or employment, and at what scale, perhaps through the Interagency Forum on Disconnected 

Youth. This evaluation can be used to allocate existing funding to the most effective programs.

4. Scale Up and Reward Effective Programs. The fastest way to reconnect opportunity youth is to support 

effective programs that have waiting lists of young people eager to transform their lives, but for whom no slots 

are available. We encourage the administration to support and Congressional leaders and state and local 

governments to respond by scaling successful evidence-based programs. The administration should also 

encourage scaling of successful programs through establishing selection criteria for Pay for Success proposals 

serving opportunity youth. The innovative Pay for Success funding model provides programs with a guaranteed 

predetermined amount of funding if they achieve agreed-upon outcomes for the populations they are serving.

5. Invest in Innovation. We applaud the administration’s Investing in Innovation Fund, Social Innovation Fund, 

and Workforce Innovation Fund, and we urge the administration to establish selection criteria for proposals serving 

opportunity youth and to open eligibility to nonprofit programs. 
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 27

STRATEGY THREE: ENGAGE YOUTH AS 

LEADERS IN THE SOLUTION

Engaging youth as leaders in developing and highlighting 

solutions that work will create more relevant, higher quality, 

and increasingly effective programs and resources for 

opportunity youth.

Youth want their voices to be heard, and they have strong, 

informed opinions of what will help them reconnect. Young 

people have a critical stake in the quality and sustainability of 

the solution as the Council heard in youth roundtables, United 

Way Community Conversations, and the national survey as 

presented in Opportunity Road1. 

Specifically:

•	 Almost 80 percent of opportunity youth want to connect 

with mentors to whom they can relate, such as successful 

peers, business mentors, and college mentors.

•	 Opportunity youth are more likely to respond to 

reconnection strategies that provide strong, integrated 

supports and treat youth as part of the solution rather than 

the problem. 

There are many examples of how youth leadership has made 

programs more effective, including youth-driven solutions in 

the Chicago public school system and the Nashville Child and 

Youth Master Plan (see details in sidebars on pages 27 and 28).

When youth are involved as community leaders, the decisions 

are more relevant, reliable, and more likely to be embraced by 

them. Perhaps most importantly, their innate understanding 

of their generation allows them to develop more authentic 

solutions to the issues they face. 

1	 Bridgeland, John M. and Jessica A. Milano (2012). Opportunity Road: The Promise and Challenges of America’s Forgotten Youth. Washington, 

DC: Civic Enterprises and America’s Promise Alliance.

Youth as Leaders in the Solution: 

Higher Graduation Rates

Nashville, Tennessee has raised high school 

graduation rates by more than 20 percentage 

points to 83 percent and reduced truancy by 

35 to 40 percent. Youth were involved on every 

level of this effort, through the youth cochaired Child and Youth Master Plan Task 

Force, providing unique insight into solutions. 

Like many cities, Nashville had an array of 

programs and initiatives providing services 

and activities for children and youth, but high 

school graduation rates hovered around 58 

percent, and school attendance was dismal. In 

February 2010, Mayor Karl Dean, the Mayor’s 

Office of Children and Youth, and community 

leaders convened a task force to pull together 

the key people and organizations involved 

with youth in Nashville—schools, government 

agencies, businesses, nonprofits, youth, and 

parents. The Master Plan Task Force organized 

all youth-focused efforts into a framework and 

created a shared vision for the community. 

Using strategies from the Ready by 21 

Coalition, the plan articulates desired outcomes 

for all children and youth for a successful 

future and acts as a blueprint for people and 

organizations to work together. Youth and their 

families were engaged throughout the process, 

and the Task Force was co-chaired by a senior 

from a local high school.

White House Council for Community Solutions. 

Case Studies of Effective Collaboratives. 2011. 

http://www.serve.gov/new-images/council/pdf/

comm_collabs_case_studies.pdf
28 White House Council for Community Solutions

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Formalize Youth Input.

» Create a Presidential Youth Working Group. We applaud 

existing efforts to reflect youth input in the administration 

via the White House Liaison to Young Americans and 

the recent White House Young America Series. The 

administration should expand on these efforts and establish 

a Presidential Youth Working Group composed of young 

people that reflects a diversity of backgrounds and experience, 

including opportunity youth, to advise the President and his 

cabinet secretaries on the perspectives of young people, offer 

input on how to make federally funded youth programs 

more effective, and support activities by each department to 

better engage young people in the policy-making process. 

» Call on Leading Organizations in the Nonprofit and Faithbased Sectors to Create a National Youth Council. We 

applaud coordinating efforts of existing organizations and 

collaborations to provide youth input into creating more 

effective nonprofit programming. To ensure youth input 

is specifically and consistently incorporated, the Council 

calls for the expansion of an existing effort, or the creation of 

a new national youth council, in addition to creating the 

Presidential Youth Working Group.

» Incorporate Youth Input Into Program Development and 

Evaluation. Nonprofit organizations (and foundations that 

support them) should incorporate authentic youth input 

in the design and evaluation of programs and services for 

opportunity youth. Specifically, nonprofits are encouraged to 

conduct constituency/beneficiary surveys of programs when 

assessing effectiveness and quality.

Youth as Leaders in the Solution: 

Higher Attendance Rates

Voices of Youth in Chicago Education

(VOYCE) is a youth-led collaborative for 

education justice. Since its formation in 

2007, VOYCE has worked toward increasing 

Chicago’s graduation rate by using youthdriven research and organizing to advance 

district-level policies that support student 

achievement. To lay the foundation for 

VOYCE’s campaign, more than 100 youth 

conducted an in-depth, year-long participatory 

action research project on the root causes of 

the city’s 50 percent graduation rate. Based on 

this research, they launched a campaign to end 

the specific disciplinary measures that push 

students out of school and increase investment 

in student supports.

Student leaders successfully organized a pilot 

program aimed at increasing social-emotional 

supports for struggling freshmen, engaging 

more than 700 freshmen and 250 older peer 

mentors in peer mentoring, youth-led retreats, 

and personalized graduation planning. 

This pilot successfully impacted attitudes, 

relationships, and attendance rates. Partner 

schools have integrated these practices into 

their school-level programming, and VOYCE’s 

campaign for safe and supportive schools has 

advanced to changing district-level policies 

that replace extreme disciplinary practices 

with research-based student supports, and 

prevention and intervention systems such as the 

initiative piloted by VOYCE.

White House Council for Community Solutions. 

Case Studies of Effective Collaboratives. 2011. 

http://www.serve.gov/new-images/council/pdf/

comm_collabs_case_studies.pdf
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 29

1. Create an Online, Youth-Rated Service Directory. Social sector and 

faith-based leaders in every community should expand an existing or 

create a new community-wide service inventory, youth networking 

and/or customer feedback tool that youth can use to assess the quality 

and availability of local support services. We applaud http://www.

FindYouthInfo.gov, and we encourage the administration to increase 

its efforts and challenge the nonprofit sector to identify a third party to 

extend the reach of the information in http://www.FindYouthInfo.gov and 

to incorporate the ability for youth to rate and recommend listings. 

2. Hire Opportunity Youth in Program Roles. To create more relevant 

youth programs and reduce stigma mistakenly attached to opportunity 

youth, all programs that serve youth—government, business, 

nonprofit, faith-based, cross sector, etc.—should assess which of their 

program and advocacy needs can be filled directly by the youth they aim 

to serve. The Council suggests that the Interagency Working Group on 

Youth Programs may be appropriate to undertake this assessment for 

the federal government.

We believe implementation of these recommendations will dramatically 

improve the efficacy of programs serving opportunity youth. 

It’s values, it’s attitude, 

it’s security, it’s stability. 

All the things that 

young people, our own 

kids need, these kids need. 

And they’re sitting here 

telling you what the 

outcomes could be 

if you give them a chance. 

If you provide them with 

the resources, they’ll do 

the rest of the work. 

– Bill Strickland

Founder and CEO, Manchester 

Craftman’s Guild
30 White House Council for Community Solutions

STRATEGY FOUR: BUILD MORE ROBUST ON-RAMPS TO EMPLOYMENT

Opportunity youth can be connected to employment successfully when multiple on-ramps linked to education and 

employment and designed to fit their community and youth needs are available and growing. 

Because the needs of opportunity youth are diverse, it is necessary to meet them where they are by offering multiple 

on-ramps to employment—including education and service with job readiness training. Building on the Harvard 

Graduate School of Education’s report Pathways to Prosperity, the PACE report Civic Pathways Out of Poverty and 

Into Prosperity, and Civic Enterprises’ Opportunity Road, the Council’s research pointed to opportunities to expand 

existing on-ramps and to build more robust on-ramps by increasing awareness of and access to wrap-around 

supports that will put youth on a path to reconnection. 

The Council focused on three key engagement strategies that serve as on-ramps to employment for opportunity 

youth, listed below.

•	 Direct to Employment: Employers being actively engaged to successfully reconnect youth to employment 

through soft skills (e.g., communications, teamwork, time management) development, work-ready skills 

development, or learn and earn employment programs.

•	 Relevant Education and Credentialing: The education sector employing strategies to reconnect youth to 

education (secondary and postsecondary) and to help prevent disconnection through programs with accessibility 

and relevancy to opportunity youth needs.

•	 Structured, Long-Term Service Programs: Community and national service opportunities providing on-ramps 

for youth to gain work/life skills needed to reconnect to education and workforce opportunities.

The approach to reconnecting youth requires a multi-sector, all-in effort to be successful. It requires active 

engagement of different partners and is not a single actor with a single program. The interconnectedness of 

employers, education systems, and service—along with communities and nonprofits providing wrap-around 

supports—is critical for effective reconnection of this population. While the on-ramps are discussed separately, each 

is highly interconnected with the others, and all rely on a foundation of wrap-around support systems provided 

through organizations that serve youth.

Youth may need alternative learning models, soft or work-ready skills, flexible employment options, or overall 

integrated social support systems to enable them to take up opportunities. Employers, service organizations, 

educators, and youth service organizations can all play a role in meeting the needs of youth by collaborating in 

multi-sector efforts.
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 31

DIRECT TO EMPLOYMENT

Youth unemployment is higher than for other age groups. Seventeen percent (unadjusted) of youth were out of work 

in February 2012, with less than half of youth employed. By contrast, the unemployment rate for those 25 and older 

was 7.4 percent, with 61 percent employed. And the 11 percent who never graduate or obtain a GED find it even 

harder to find employment. The unemployment rate for those adults was 14.8 percent, compared with 9.2 percent 

for high school graduates.

Benefits for Employers

Johns Hopkins Health System

provides work readiness and job 

skills training to low-skilled, entrylevel workers (and others interested) 

through courses taught at the hospital. 

Through reduction in employee 

turnover, the program has generated a 

79 percent return on investment, and 

Hopkins can adjust the curriculum 

based on its needs.

Corporate Voices for Working Families. 

Building the Business Case for Investing 

in Tomorrow’s Workforce: Employers 

See Positive Returns from Community 

Partnerships. 2011.

Additionally, the existing workforce does not match the job 

requirements of the future. Georgetown University’s Center on 

Education and the Workforce predicts a skills gap of approximately 

three million postsecondary degrees and 4.7 million postsecondary 

certificates by 2018. Even today, 80 percent of manufacturers report 

they cannot find people to fill their skilled production jobs, translating 

to more than 500,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs; some 53 percent 

of large employers and 67 percent of small business leaders report they 

cannot find qualified nonmanagerial employees.

Based on research of successful employer programs for opportunity 

youth, the Council believes every employer can play a role in creating 

paths to employment. Approximately 50 percent of opportunity youth 

surveyed indicated that they do not have enough work experience to get 

the kind of job they want. Employers have a great deal to offer young 

people to better prepare them for work and equip them with the right 

skills, experience, and outlook. Whether providing work-relevant soft 

skills through one-on-one mentoring or workshops, hosting job shadow 

days, or providing youth with an opportunity to learn on the job and 

develop marketable skills while receiving compensation, employers can make a difference in creating opportunities

to help youth get back on track. 

In addition to the impact on the youth, there is a clear benefit to employers who thoughtfully develop programs for 

opportunity youth. Employers have reported increases in employee engagement, customer loyalty, and employee 

retention. These programs also provide employers with an improved local talent pipeline, help further diversity 

objectives, and contribute to the societal benefits of stronger communities as a whole.

Ways Employers Can Engage: The Three Lanes

Based on nationwide stakeholder listening sessions and extensive case study analysis of employers operating successful 

youth programs, the Council developed a set of best practices for employer engagement. These include establishing 

clear youth selection criteria, creating flexible education support, and providing on-the-job learning 
32 White House Council for Community Solutions

along with working with a nonprofit partner, setting high expectations, and ensuring wrap-around services are 

available. Building on this research, the Council identified three fundamental lanes of engagement through which 

a business can support youth: developing soft skills; developing work-ready skills; and offering learn and earn 

employment opportunities.

Exhibit 4: Three Lanes of Employer Engagement

Soft skills are critical to success in the 

workplace. Company employees with a 

few years or more of work experience can 

be insightful guides for opportunity youth 

through one-on-one mentorship, coaching 

sessions, and workshops. This type of support 

can range from medium- to long-term 

commitments (e.g., mentoring) to one-time 

events (e.g., workshops) and is the most 

flexible of the three lanes of engagement.

Southwire, a manufacturer of cables and wires in Georgia, has 

employees work with the Carroll County schools as mentors for 

young students. This allows students to combine their studies with 

on-the-job training (and a paycheck) in its wire manufacturing plant.

Corporate Voices for Working Families. Building the Business Case for 

Investing in Tomorrow’s Workforce: Employers See Positive Returns from 

Community Partnerships. 2011.

Soft Skills Program Highlight

SOFT SKILLS

DEVELOPMENT

WORK-READY SKILLS

DEVELOPMENT

LEARN & EARN

PROGRAMS

Opportunities that provide youth 

with work-relevant soft skills via 

course work and/or direct 

experience

Examples:

• Soft skills workshops

• Employee mentors

Examples:

• Job shadow days

• Career exploration guidance

• Job readiness training

Examples:

• Paid internships with 

structured training and 

support (e.g., buddy)

• Permanent positions with 

structured training and 

support (e.g., mentor)

Opportunities that provide youth 

with insight into the world of 

work to prepare them for 

employment

Opportunities for youth to 

develop on-the-job skills in a 

learning environment while 

receiving wages for their 

work
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 33

Experiencing the world of work close to the source, youth 

begin to have a better sense of what it takes to be ready for 

work. Employers can host job shadow days, offer career 

exploration guidance, and provide job readiness training. 

These types of work-ready skills programs can be sources of 

inspiration for a young person and can spark a focused interest 

in a field or area of study.

Learn and earn programs can provide opportunity youth with 

the best of both worlds: an opportunity to learn on the job 

and develop marketable skills, and an opportunity to receive 

compensation for their work. These programs can come in the 

form of internships, apprenticeships, and permanent positions, 

which are usually coupled with a mentor or buddy and 

structured training. 

It is essential that employers engaging youth work closely with 

a nonprofit partner. Opportunity youth can have a range of 

challenges in their lives, and having a partner skilled in 

working directly with these young people can be of great value 

to a business. In addition to robust partnerships, measuring the 

results of company efforts to assess the value to the business 

and make the case for continuation or expansion of the 

program is critical.

Learn and Earn Program Highlight

CVS Caremark created regional learning 

centers to source, train, and hire entry-level 

workers. The program helps untapped talent 

enter the industry and progress along the career 

path by offering innovative training, career 

mentoring, and education encouragement. 

Since the program’s inception, the company 

has doubled its retention rate and has generated 

a 179 percent return on investment (return 

relative to costs on Work Opportunity Tax 

Credit). CVS’s research shows a 30 percent 

higher retention rate among employees from 

these learning centers.

Corporate Voices for Working Families. Learn 

and Earn Micro-Business Case Series. 2011. 

http://www.corporatevoices.org/our-work/pse/

micro_cases

Work-Ready Skills 

Program Highlight

Gap Inc. created a program called This Way 

Ahead (delivered in partnership through a New 

York-based nonprofit, The Door) to expose 

opportunity youth to career exploration, job 

readiness training, internships, and followup support. In this program, 80 percent of 

employees improved their leadership skills as a 

result of volunteering.

Gap, Inc.; TCC Group, December 2009, 

Evaluation Report for Gap Foundation’s 

This Way Ahead Youth Program. http://www.

bewhatspossible.com/Home/TargetCauses.aspx
34 White House Council for Community Solutions

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

Encourage All Sectors to Increase Job Opportunities for 

Opportunity Youth

» The Council was honored to participate in the administration’s 

Summer Jobs+ initiative that partnered with corporate 

leaders with a goal of providing 250,000 private, government, 

and nonprofit sector opportunities for disconnected and 

disadvantaged youth in the summer of 2012. We recommend 

the administration continue and deepen this initiative by 

increasing the target for jobs and other opportunities as currently 

defined in Summer Jobs+ every year, encouraging the creation 

of more year-round opportunities in addition to summer jobs, 

and by expanding this initiative to include the faith-based 

community. All employers should be made aware of the tools 

available in Employer Tool Kit: Connecting Youth to Employment

and should be encouraged to include mutually beneficial 

youth employment programs as part of their corporate social 

responsibility strategy.

» We applaud the administration for pledging to hire more than 

20,000 opportunity or disadvantaged youth through Summer 

Jobs+. We encourage the administration to continue and 

deepen this initiative by committing to increase the number 

of jobs each year and by providing year-round opportunities in 

addition to annual summer opportunities.

» We applaud the administration’s support of the Disconnected 

Youth Opportunity Tax Credit, which was authorized in 

the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2010 and 

provides a tax credit to employers who hire disadvantaged 

youth. We recommend that the administration, with the 

support of Congress, continue to build on the Disconnected 

Youth Opportunity Tax Credit and to strengthen it by including 

incentives for employers to provide a range of valuable experiences 

from job shadowing, career awareness, mentoring or internship 

programs to hiring opportunity youth.

Successful Programs Partner 

With Local Nonprofits

LinkedIn and Year Up work 

together to provide opportunities 

for opportunity youth. Year Up 

is a nonprofit organization that 

provides a year of training to help 

prepare urban young adults for 

career advancement and higher 

education opportunities. Students 

receive technical and professional 

skills, college credits, an educational 

stipend, and a six-month-long 

corporate internship with local 

partner companies. The program 

focuses on developing skills in 

several areas: IT/help desk support, 

investment operations, and quality 

assurance.

LinkedIn is one of the first 

Silicon Valley-based companies to 

participate as a corporate partner in 

Year Up’s program. At LinkedIn, 

the interns performed rotations in 

the IT department. In June 2011 

LinkedIn Director of Corporate 

IT Mike Jennings wrote, “We’ve 

been very impressed with the results 

that the interns have delivered 

during their time here. In addition 

to providing technical support 

for LinkedIn’s employees, they’ve 

become a valuable part of our team, 

adding energy and enthusiasm while 

helping reduce our team’s workload.”
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 35

RELEVANT EDUCATION AND 

CREDENTIALING1

Opportunity youth often lack the credentials (high school diploma, 

GED, technical or postsecondary education) that lead to success in 

life. In fact, 47 percent of opportunity youth say they lack enough 

education to get their ideal job.2Additionally, many “best-in-class” 

programs are still inaccessible for the majority of opportunity youth 

because they require prerequisite academic skills that many of these 

young people lack. Youth often remain disconnected because the 

solutions offered by many well-meaning institutions and individuals 

are not tied to the systems the youth are disconnected from, or even 

to the issues they are facing. 

Effective education efforts aimed at opportunity youth are 

comprehensive, youth-centered, flexible, and pragmatic. Successful 

interventions are those that encompass a multi-sector approach 

and link education to social services, mental health services, 

employment, and/or job training. The Council believes that 

educational efforts to prevent disconnection and innovative 

programs to encourage postsecondary reconnection and completion 

that follow these best practices can provide additional pathways for 

opportunity youth.

Keeping Youth Engaged in Education 

A student’s decision to drop out of school is not the result of a 

single life event. To the contrary, issues such as poor attendance, 

behavior, and problems with course completion begin to manifest 

as early as elementary school and into middle school. Emerging 

proactive strategies that address dropouts focus on students in 

elementary and middle schools. But early identification of students 

at risk of disconnection is only a first step. The key to preventing 

disconnection is developing the capacity of public education to 

mitigate the risk factors and help students stay connected, graduate, 

and be prepared for college and careers. Communities must develop 

a collective commitment and belief that graduation rates 

1	 Bridgeland, John M. and Jessica A. Milano (2012). Opportunity Road: The Promise 

and Challenges of America’s Forgotten Youth. Washington, DC: Civic Enterprises and 

America’s Promise Alliance.

2 Opportunity Road: The Promise and Challenges of America’s Forgotten Youth.

Education Solutions: Prevention

Strive, a nonprofit based in Cincinnati, 

has brought together more than 300 local 

leaders from the private, government, 

secondary, and postsecondary education 

and nonprofit sectors to drive educational 

progress through collective impact, 

resource alignment, and data-informed 

decision-making. Stakeholders codeveloped a common agenda, evaluation 

standards, and a consistent communication 

platform with the vision of improving 

the education system throughout greater 

Cincinnati and northern Kentucky. Strive’s 

goals directly relate to the prevention of 

disconnected youth by preparing every 

child for school; supporting children inside 

and outside of school; promoting academic 

success; and aiming to ensure that every 

child enrolls and succeeds in some form of 

postsecondary education. 

Stakeholders who participate in Strive 

share a common agenda, but their 

individual activities are not uniform. 

Instead, participants perform coordinated 

activities at which they excel and which 

support Strive’s overarching mission. 

All activities are informed by the shared 

metrics. In the four years since its 

inception, the program has achieved 

impressive successes. Stakeholders set 

aside their individual agendas in favor of 

a collective approach in order to solve this 

entrenched, systemic problem.

White House Council for Community 

Solutions. Case Studies of Effective 

Collaboratives. 2011. http://www.serve.gov/

new-images/council/pdf/comm_collabs_case_

studies.pdf
36 White House Council for Community Solutions

can improve through the early, data-driven identification of 

potentially disconnected students, the application of diverse 

multi-sector strategies to address student needs, and a public 

education system with the capacity to provide them. 

Re-engaging Opportunity Youth in Education

Innovative secondary programs, as well as postsecondary 

institutions, can be critical in re-engaging youth in 

education. Alternative GED programs and charter schools 

that allow for internships or other work connections are 

examples of how secondary education programs can be more 

engaging for opportunity youth.

Increasingly, colleges and universities across the 

nation—many of which are anchor institutions in 

their communities—are getting more involved in 

their communities and interested in the topic of youth 

development and alternative education. By virtue of their 

missions, community colleges are uniquely positioned 

to provide pathways to success for opportunity youth. 

The federal government’s emphasis on and support of 

community colleges has the potential to provide many more 

opportunities for youth. Community colleges can play a 

critical role in re-engaging opportunity youth by providing 

programs for remediation and career-oriented, competencybased instruction. When they partner with other leaders 

from the educational and social sectors, community colleges 

have even greater potential to positively impact at-risk youth. 

Educational Solutions:

Youth Re-Engagement

The Gateway to College program allows high 

school dropouts to enroll in community colleges 

across the country to gain the competencies 

needed to graduate from high school while 

accumulating credits toward a postsecondary 

credential. This program, originating at the 

Portland Community College in Portland, 

Oregon, has been replicated at 29 colleges in 

16 states. Students in the Gateway to College 

program attend classes on the college campus; they 

are college students. The program pays the cost of 

admission, fees, and books. Gateway to College 

uses public education funding and the college 

infrastructure to support the program. 

In addition to providing academic support, 

Gateway to College offers wrap-around services 

to address the social and emotional needs of 

students. Students are provided an opportunity 

to learn within a small cadre of their peers and 

are taught by a team of instructors and resource 

specialists. After the first year of intensive 

transitional guidance to build their academic and 

personal skills, students join the general college 

student population. The program combines high 

expectations with personal coaching and support. 

Although the Gateway to College program is 

relatively new, early data indicate promising 

results. Students who experienced poor attendance 

rates in high school show an increase in attendance 

at Gateway to College (an average rate of 82 

percent.) To date, Gateway to College students 

have passed 72 percent of nearly 70,000 college 

courses with a C or better.

White House Council for Community Solutions. Case 

Studies of Effective Collaboratives. 2011. http://www.

serve.gov/new-images/council/pdf/comm_collabs_

case_studies.pdf
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 37

Bridging the Gap Between Education 

and Employment

One innovative type of educational 

program, a bridge program, is 

designed to create comprehensive 

pathways for youth to and through 

postsecondary programs and/or 

employment opportunities, bridging 

the students’ experience from high 

school to postsecondary education 

or from postsecondary education to 

employment. Successful bridge programs 

incorporate strategic partnerships with 

education leaders at the secondary and 

postsecondary levels, as well as the 

employment and social sectors. Such 

partnerships allow students to access 

bridge programs through a variety of 

avenues, gain knowledge and experience 

that is relevant to their career aspirations, 

and receive guidance on a range of topics 

and issues. 

In addition, these types of innovative 

partnerships between education and 

employment are critical to ensuring our 

youth get the type of skills our labor 

market is demanding. This multi-sector 

approach can help youth reconnect 

and prepare for the workforce, while 

equipping them with the most relevant 

set of skills.

Educational Solutions:

Community Colleges Connecting Education 

to Employment

Skills for America’s Future is an initiative of the Aspen Institute to create 

a national network of partnerships among employers, community colleges, 

industry associations, and other stakeholders. These partnerships are 

designed to ensure Americans receive the training necessary to meet the 

needs of employers and have the opportunity to get and keep good jobs. 

Since the initiative was announced in October 2010, Skills for America’s 

Future has successfully helped create or expand partnerships between 

more than 30 employers and 200 community colleges across the country.

An example is Metropolitan College, a Louisville, Kentucky-based 

partnership between UPS, government, and postsecondary educational 

institutions. The program offers participants both financial support for 

study and part-time employment at UPS. As of 2010, 2,600 individuals, 

who had participated in Metropolitan College for one or more semesters, 

had earned 3,760 credentials including 1,024 certificates, 966 associate’s 

degrees, 1,576 bachelor’s degrees, and 194 advanced degrees. In addition to 

benefits for participants, Metropolitan College has dramatically stabilized 

UPS’s overnight workforce and provided reliable, skilled employees to staff 

UPS operations in Louisville.

Educational Solutions: Partnering With Employers

In a new study by the Manufacturing Institute (http://www.

themanufacturinginstitute.org/Research/Skills-Gap-inManufacturing/2011-Skills-Gap-Report/2011-Skills-Gap-Report.aspx) 

more than 80 percent of manufacturers report they cannot find people 

to fill their skilled production jobs.  As a result, more than 500,000 

manufacturing jobs are open right now. Responding to this talent crisis 

and to the need to create jobs in this country, the Institute worked 

with the President’s Jobs Council to tailor the national manufacturing 

certification system into a nationally replicable fast-track solution to 

deliver just in time talent to small manufacturers.  This accelerated 

program, Right Skills Now, allows individuals to earn college credit 

and national industry certifications in 16 weeks, preparing them for 

immediate employment in high-quality manufacturing jobs and giving 

them a solid foundation to advance in higher education and careers.
38 White House Council for Community Solutions

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

Provide High-Quality, Relevant Educational Opportunities for Opportunity Youth

» We applaud the administration’s Blueprint for Investing in America’s Future: Transforming Career and Technical 

Education (CTE) and in particular its four core principles: alignment, collaboration, accountability, and 

innovation. The administration’s proposal would use a combination of technical assistance, competition, and 

a system of structured rewards to ensure that more students, regardless of backgrounds or circumstances, have 

access to high-quality CTE programs. The current act provides separate funding streams for local education 

agencies and postsecondary institutions, making alignment challenging, and weakening a student’s ability to 

transition between secondary and postsecondary systems. The administration’s proposal would discontinue this 

approach by requiring states to competitively fund consortia of Local Education Agencies (LEAs), postsecondary 

institutions, and their partners. The proposal includes provisions to ensure competitive funding has no adverse 

impact on access for vulnerable student populations including, for instance, the authority for states to establish 

absolute funding priorities. The proposal would also require that at least one of the LEAs in the consortia serve 

a high concentration of students from low-income families and allow resources for states to provide services for 

opportunity youth. 

» We applaud the Department of Education’s Together for Tomorrow initiative to involve faith-based and other 

community organizations in developing and supporting programs that increase school attendance, improve 

behavior, support academic achievement, and increase college accessibility. We recommend the administration 

encourage the postsecondary education community to scale effective examples of community- and faith-based 

organizations to provide opportunity youth the remediation, support services, and career-oriented instruction necessary 

for their success. 

» The administration should encourage the K-12 system to do more data-driven early identification and prevention of 

school disconnection. Specifically, early warning information and intervention systems should be put in place in 

schools to identify those students whose attendance, behavior, and course completion records signal the need for 

school-based and community-based supports. These systems should be combined with appropriate programs for 

recovery. 

» Encourage school districts and community and faith-based organizations to provide high-quality remedial 

and dropout recovery services to opportunity youth. Current offerings are not sufficient to meet the need. 

Regulations should encourage dropout recovery services, and Race to the Top should include selection criteria for 

applicants including reconnecting opportunity youth strategies in their state plans.

» We applaud the administration’s support of Skills for America’s Future, an industry-led initiative to improve 

industry partnerships with community colleges and build a nationwide network to maximize workforce 

development strategies, job training programs, and job placements. We recommend that the administration 

continue its support of efforts that meet the needs of local employers in today’s dynamic economy. 
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 39

» We recommend the administration encourage the military and employers to work closely with higher education 

institutions to align work experience with curriculum for degree-granting programs to allow those participating in 

qualifying military and employer training or work experiences to earn academic credit.

STRUCTURED, LONG-TERM SERVICE PROGRAMS

A structured, long-term service program is a viable path for opportunity youth to connect to postsecondary 

education and the workforce. In fact, nearly seven in ten (69 percent) of opportunity youth surveyed want to make 

a difference in the lives of others, while only three percent report that they are volunteering. This indicates that there 

is an untapped interest in service opportunities, and these very opportunities can provide a path to further education 

and employment. In fact, service has long been an on-ramp to the nonprofit field, which is one of the fastest growing 

occupations in our economy today. 

Existing Service Programs Offer Opportunity for Youth

The roots of the modern service movement took hold during the Great Depression of the 1930s when the Civilian 

Conservation Corps put three million young people to work over a decade to restore the nation’s parks and 

developing infrastructure, while allowing those young people to support themselves and their families. Today there 

are many opportunities for service both locally and nationally. Full-time, structured, long-term (at least six months) 

service programs for youth can provide a meaningful transition to 

Service as a Path to Education

AmeriCorps National Civilian 

Community Corps (NCCC) partnered 

with the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance 

to create a nonprofit leadership certificate. 

A member’s experience earns them most 

of the requirements for the certificate 

program, including fulfilling the internship 

requirement. AmeriCorps NCCC works 

closely with partner universities to enroll 

students in the remaining required 

courses. The Louisiana State University 

in Shreveport, for example, offers NCCC 

additional benefits like waiving the GRE 

requirement, allowing members to pay 

in-state tuition, and providing the option 

to take classes online. Graduates of NCCC 

also earn an educational award to apply 

toward future post-secondary courses.

either employment or education. Participants do real work helping 

communities address issues in education, health, poverty, housing, 

conservation, veterans’ services, and disaster preparedness and 

relief.

These service programs often include program elements recognized 

as best practices in successfully engaging youth, including high 

expectations, wrap-around support, work-relevant learning 

opportunities, and a connected, caring adult.

Service: Connecting Opportunity Youth to Education

Support for educational achievement that service programs provide 

is an incentive to enroll in a service program. Such programs are 

also often transformational in the lives of opportunity youth. 

The primary educational support offered by many such service 

programs is the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award that is 

given upon completion of service and can be applied to further 

postsecondary expenses or to repay qualified student loans.
40 White House Council for Community Solutions

Additionally, many service programs have a built-in academic curriculum and offer other external educational 

opportunities. Remedial and GED-prep courses are offered in many programs. Others offer courses in specific 

industries to allow members to earn nationally recognized certifications.

Service programs are taking additional steps to improve their members’ educational outcomes. Some service 

programs are now holding education fairs, building postsecondary partnerships, including setting up college credit 

agreements in which participants receive undergraduate credit for completing their service programs, and providing 

online transition guidance for service members completing their terms.

Service: Connecting Opportunity Youth to Employment

Service As a Path to 

Employment

Through the National Guard 

Youth ChalleNGe Program, 

cadets have the opportunity to 

develop work-ready skills through 

career assessment and interest 

inventories, job-specific skills 

orientation and awareness, and 

training in area vocational centers. 

Classes cover the development 

of individual resumes, how to 

complete job applications, and 

what is needed to prepare for 

and go through a job interview. 

Key to success is a self-selected 

mentor that works with the cadet 

to develop a 12-month postresidential plan to help guide 

them after graduation. The mentor 

remains in contact for a full year 

after the cadet has completed the 

program, ensuring that the life 

plan is being followed. 

In addition to encouraging educational aspirations of members, many 

service programs have workforce development initiatives that equip youth 

with essential skills they need to be contributing members in the economy 

and their communities. Graduates of service programs enhance their 

employability through acquisition of various soft skills and work-ready 

skills developed through specifically designed program elements geared 

toward enhanced employability, and a new 

social network. 

Service programs are an especially effective pipeline for jobs in the fastgrowing nonprofit sector. The nonprofit sector employs 10.5 million 

workers or one-tenth of all U.S. workers. It is the third largest industry 

behind manufacturing and retail. From 2008 to 2010, while private sector 

employment declined eight percent, nonprofit employment grew 4.5 

percent. Because many opportunity youth have been clients of nonprofit 

services, their experience makes them especially prepared to be service 

providers and leaders on issues they know well.

Skills training is inherent in the nature of service programs. Whether it 

is work-ready skills such as CPR training, disaster relief, construction or 

health care, service programs require on-the-job training as part of the 

experience and many require pre-service training as well. Members also 

develop soft skills such as a strong work ethic, time management skills, 

respect for authority, self-advocacy, leadership, public speaking, flexibility, 

resourcefulness, and teamwork. 
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 41

Furthermore, many service programs connect their members to 

opportunities that help their graduates transition into the workplace. 

Some programs conduct workshops on building resumes, teach 

business etiquette or provide mentors to help members develop “life 

plans.” Mock interview sessions are also available in some programs. 

These new skills translate to employment opportunities. According 

to a 2008 independent report, AmeriCorps VISTA members were 

consistently more likely to be employed than their counterparts 

in the comparison group. Despite similarities in career choices, 

VISTA members reported a higher current income profile than their 

counterparts in the comparison group.1

 Additionally, 67 percent 

of AmeriCorps state and national members and 70 percent of 

AmeriCorps NCCC members report that their experiences provided 

them with an advantage in finding a job.2

History has proven and programs today show evidence that service 

can provide a viable path for opportunity youth to education and 

employment. While many programs are successful today, the Council 

believes that it will require the service sector working more closely with

the educational and employment sectors to improve and expand these

on-ramps for opportunity youth. 

1 Corporation for National and Community Service, Improving Lives and 

Communities: Perspectives on 40 Years of VISTA Service. Washington, DC: 2008.

2	 Corporation for National and Community Service, Office of Research and Policy

Development, Still Serving: Measuring the Eight-Year Impact of AmeriCorps on Alumni. 

Washington, DC: 2008.

And through the love and 

respect of both of those 

(national service) programs, 

we were allowed to utilize 

that energy, and channel 

that into something 

that became community 

outreach, things that build 

our communities, make 

better leaders, and also 

helped in our situations.

– Kareema Barr

Youth Build Graduate
42 White House Council for Community Solutions

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Increase Service Opportunities Available to Opportunity Youth and Ensure Strong Links to Education 

and Employment

» We applaud AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps’ (NCCC) 50 percent target for disadvantaged 

youth members and the new Federal Emergency Management Agency/NCCC initiative that creates more 

service opportunities for opportunity youth. We recommend Corporation for National and Community 

Service (CNCS) expand this effort by setting annual targets to increase the percentage of disadvantaged youth slots 

available and by establishing a cross-cutting priority for all programs that engage opportunity youth in service, to 

ensure that its impact priorities do not disadvantage programs that engage such young people. Grant-based 

service programs should provide incentives through rewarding programs that propose and show evidence of 

successfully serving opportunity youth.

» Many service programs have established evidence of success in providing an on-ramp for youth from service 

to education and employment. Many of these same service programs also have waiting lists. The Council 

recommends that the administration support and Congressional leaders, state and local governments respond by 

scaling successful evidence-based service programs. 

» We applaud the inclusion of the Opportunity Corps in the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. The 

Council recommends implementing this initiative to reconnect youth and enlist their help in boosting the social 

mobility of others in their communities. 

» We applaud the progress being made by the 21st Century Corps Initiative in creating stronger links between 

corps service and successful careers. CNCS should continue to promote stronger links to education and 

employment, including elements from transition to work programs such as providing academic credits from 

educational institutions and certifications from training programs and focusing on critical workforce skills 

that can be developed through service.

2. Help Opportunity Youth Find Mentors

» We applaud the administration’s mentoring efforts including the First Lady’s Corporate Mentoring 

Challenge and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s multiple mentoring initiatives and 

recommend that these efforts be expanded and deepened by encouraging youth-initiated mentoring.
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 43

CLOSING SUMMARY

Community collaboratives with specific key attributes can achieve significant improvement in a variety of 

persistent community issues. While a dozen of these successful collaboratives were documented through the 

Council’s research, approximately 100 more were identified as moving in the direction of accomplishing needlemoving change. With the right tools and supports, these promising collaboratives are poised to create significant 

improvement in their communities.

The population of opportunity youth is large and eager to take charge of their futures, but at the same time, it has 

complex and diverse needs. The benefits of reconnecting these youth to education or employment are enormous and 

require urgent action from all sectors. 

Many efforts are expanding or being initiated to drive the growth of both successful community collaboratives and 

solutions for opportunity youth, including the Office of Management and Budget Performance Partnership Pilots, 

the United Way Community Conversations, and a new Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions. (Please 

see Appendix C for more examples of new efforts under way.)

With evidence in hand and movement underfoot, the Council believes that implementing the recommendations 

highlighted in this report—driving the development of successful cross-sector community collaboratives, creating 

a nationwide awareness and accountability for opportunity youth, engaging youth as leaders in the solution, and 

building more robust on-ramps to employment—will lead to significant progress on solving many persistent 

community issues, including ensuring all of our young people are on the path to prosperity.

Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 45

APPENDICES

A STAKEHOLDER OUTREACH SUMMARY 45

B UNITED WAY OPPORTUNITY 

COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS SUMMARY 47

C THIRD PARTY SUSTAINING EFFORTS 51

D BIBLIOGRAPHY 55
46 White House Council for Community Solutions

Appendix A:

STAKEHOLDER OUTREACH SUMMARY

BACKGROUND

Members of the White House Council for Community Solutions engaged diverse stakeholders from across the 

country in meetings, roundtables, community-based listening sessions, and webinars between the months of March 

and May 2011. Formal listening sessions were held in New Orleans, Louisiana; Atlanta, Georgia; Houston, Texas; 

San Francisco, California; and Cincinnati, Ohio. This document provides a synthesis of the input collected from the 

more than 300 stakeholders across communities and sectors. 

KEY FINDINGS: WHAT YOUNG PEOPLE NEED TO RECONNECT AND SUCCEED

PROGRAMS

•	 Holistic programs, or network of services, that address a full range of needs, with additional “seats” (capacity) in 

existing programs that work (rather than accessing multiple programs to meet each specific need)

•	 Accessible programs that are personalized and include a caring adult (mentor) and the opportunity to build 

social networks

•	 Multiple paths to success, including a variety of on-ramps and reentry paths that meet young people where 

they are

•	 Effective programs that address the needs of those youth performing significantly below grade level when they 

leave the education system (estimated to be up to 70 percent of opportunity youth)

•	 High-quality, relevant education and job training programs that prepare youth for real job opportunities and 

better access to relevant work experience

COMMUNICATION

•	 Expanded outreach to increase young peoples’ awareness of programs that work

•	 Elimination of stereotypes of the limitations of opportunity youth and messaging that reinforces youth as assets

PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION

•	 Improvements to systems that fail youth and lead to the point of disconnection (e.g., foster care, education, 

juvenile justice)

•	 Involvement of caring adults, (including parents and guardians, when possible) to be mentors and positive role 

models

•	 Opportunities for positive peer support 
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 47

KEY FINDINGS: WHAT’S NEEDED FOR EFFECTIVE CROSS-SECTOR 

COLLABORATION

•	 Clearly defined problem, trust among stakeholders, community-wide common goals and metrics and data-driven 

decisions

•	 Effective design involving all stakeholders, e.g., youth, educators, employers, credentialing entities, youth-serving 

organizations, and other stakeholders

•	 Incentives for existing collaboratives to address challenges facing youth rather than formation of new 

collaboratives

KEY FINDINGS: WHAT STAKEHOLDERS NEED TO MOVE FORWARD

•	 A common language articulating the challenge, a clearly defined business case for each stakeholder, and proof 

that transformation is possible

•	 Defined opportunities to engage and add value that align with stakeholders’ missions and capitalize on 

organizational competencies

•	 Better access to and alignment of public (state/local/federal) and private resources

•	 Engagement of noncorporate employers (e.g., local government, universities, health care, among others), 

particularly those with growth in job opportunities
48 White House Council for Community Solutions

Appendix B: UNITED WAY 

OPPORTUNITY COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS

BACKGROUND

United Way Worldwide planned a series of Opportunity Community Conversations to bring together people, 

businesses, government, and nonprofits to create real change in education, income, and health. In response to 

President Obama’s call to action at the January 5, 2012, Summer Jobs + event, United Way Worldwide invited the 

Council to participate in these conversations throughout the country. This resulted in more than 125 community 

conversations occurring from February through March 2012.

The community conversations were hosted and managed on a voluntary basis by the local United Way affiliates, 

with leadership and support from United Way Worldwide. Each affiliate that participated committed to holding 

three to five conversations. Many of these conversations were with everyday people, and at least one conversation in 

each community included community leaders. 

SUMMARY

Across the nation, community conversations including youth, families, adults, community, nonprofit, business, and 

government leaders surfaced common challenges and opportunities for addressing the needs of opportunity youth. 

In describing their toughest challenges, youth reported difficulty navigating and accessing local services, a dearth of 

mentors and role models, inadequate pathways to meaningful employment and education, and a concern for basic 

safety. Across communities, youth were characterized by a distrust of government, preferring to engage with local 

organizations. A strong entrepreneurial spirit also characterized youth, with many calling for a louder voice and a 

more prominent role in serving their local communities. Youth are coping with common struggles: many expressed 

frustration with their family unit, disillusionment with local schools and law enforcement, and disenchantment with 

the lack of employment opportunities tailored specifically for youth. 

These findings point to great opportunity for improvement, including more collaboration between service providers, 

more mentors, a more individualized approach to services for youth, youth involvement in creating solutions, and 

greater accessibility to information about available services.

OVERVIEW OF COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS

The Council participated in the community conversations to meet three objectives:

•	 To spark informed action in communities around the nation, creating solutions for disconnected youth.

•	 To make sure that information about opportunity youth and the tools for addressing their needs were 

disseminated widely to those who are in the best position to create opportunities for these youth.

•	 To inform the recommendations in the Council’s final report to the President by gathering information on what 

works and on the challenges and opportunities in implementing community solutions.
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 49

The United Way affiliates invited attendees based on their network in their local communities. In addition, Council 

members worked with affiliates to create a mix of participants who are thought leaders and innovators in the area of 

collaborative efforts and opportunity youth. 

The moderated discussions were framed with data from two research reports Opportunity Road: The Promise and 

Challenges of America’s Forgotten Youth and The Economic Value of Opportunity Youth.

The discussion engaged participants in an in-depth dialogue around the following topics:

•	 What creates opportunities/a good life in a community?

•	 What is standing in the way of achieving this opportunity?

•	 What could be done to create these opportunities/good lives?

•	 Specifically with regard to opportunity youth:

» What successful programs exist?

» Who should be at the table to create opportunities, and what would it take to get them involved?

» What challenges and opportunities exist in this community in addressing the needs of opportunity youth?

KEY FINDINGS

YOUTH ASPIRATIONS

Across cities and conversations, in discussing aspirations, responses are strongly consistent. First and foremost, 

youth want safety, a palpable sense of community engagement, a strong family unit, and a credible opportunity 

to realize the American dream. Youth want to live in an environment that is safe, inclusive of diversity (including 

differences in sexual orientation and identity), and supportive of youth and their aspirations. Along these lines, youth 

want to live in neighborhoods in which neighbors and community members are explicitly positive and supportive, 

not actively destructive or pessimistic. Youth want to enjoy an educational system that prepares them for a better 

future. Youth want access to meaningful employment. Critical to meaningful employment and to enjoying a 

meaningful future more broadly is mentorship. Youth want access to quality mentorship and exemplary role models 

because youth want to feel supported day-to-day and youth recognize how important mentorship is in successfully 

navigating an increasingly complex job and educational market. 

Interestingly, a common aspiration among youth is also a strong desire to be free of government intervention and 

support. There is a powerful aversion to dependence on government that emerges in the conversations. However, 

youth consistently held high hopes for their communities and, oftentimes, respected the community organizations 

striving to serve them. Importantly, youth aspire to be helped by their communities, not government.
50 White House Council for Community Solutions

Lastly, youth aspire to serve their communities, too. Youth aspire to have a louder voice in their communities and 

want to play a stronger role in confronting common challenges. Youth are extremely entrepreneurial, but have few 

means available to them through which to exercise their pioneering spirit. While youth certainly need support and 

services, youth also require an opportunity to serve and to give back.

YOUTH CHALLENGES

Across the nation, youth most commonly identified the following

as their most difficult challenges:

•	 Difficulty navigating and accessing local services. Accessing and navigating services is a challenge common 

among youth. Youth label services delivered by both the social sector and the government as fragmented, 

uncoordinated, insensitive to individual concerns, and stigmatizing. Youth are calling for services that are less 

stigmatizing, more individualized, and tightly integrated among providers. 

•	 A dearth of role models and mentors. Youth are calling for more role models and mentors to help them with the 

difficult and often complex paths to rewarding employment and education. Traditional sources of mentorship 

have proven inadequate; youth are often disenchanted with local teachers, law enforcement, and even the family 

unit.

•	 Inadequate pathways to employment and education. The devastated economy and an increasingly competitive 

but deeply inadequate school system have taken a huge toll on youth and their prospects for opportunities. For 

many youth, there are few, if any, clear paths to meaningful employment or education. Youth need stronger onramps to paths leading to meaningful employment or education, and more guidance (e.g., mentorship) as they 

walk along these paths.

•	 Safety. A palpable sense of insecurity and danger is evident in many conversations with youth. This is 

compounded by the difficult relationship many youth have with local enforcement. Strengthening the 

relationship between youth, local law enforcement, and local government could contribute to a greater sense of 

well-being among youth in their communities. 
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 51

WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE?

Youth are asking for basic physical and economic security and educational and occupational opportunity. While 

there are organizations working to provide these things for youth, a frequent and passionate theme among adult 

participants was the frequency with which nonprofit and community organizations failed to coordinate, pool 

resources, and collaborate. Many of the adult participants cite the lack of connections among/between organizations 

and the negative effect that has on services to youth. Some organizations have reported creating databases of 

resources and referrals geared toward helping program participants. But organizations must go further. 

Therefore, the prevalence of destructive turf wars was cited as a persistent theme. Many participants strongly desired 

a lead agency that acts as a neutral agent responsible for convening local parties; a good lead agency isn’t necessarily 

a lead but rather a starting point for community change. Without collaboration, many youth are excluded from 

community services. 

Youth were consistently emphatic about the need for role models and positive mentors. Simply, youth are not 

exposed to enough positive role models in their communities, nor are they receiving the individualized support 

that comes from having a mentor. Mentors are crucial to ensuring a meaningful work experience, to navigating the 

complex systems of public education as well as the difficulties inherent to many underserved communities. 

OPPORTUNITIES AND POTENTIAL RECOMMENDATIONS

A number of possible recommendations emerged: 

•	 Participants are calling for more collaboration among organizations to close critical gaps in services.

•	 Youth are calling for more role models and mentors. 

•	 Participants are calling for organizations that effectively meet their individual needs and concerns. 

•	 Youth are eager to be part of the solution; calls for more tutoring or peer counseling are common. However, 

youth report that they are rarely asked to serve their peers in their community. 

•	 Adult participants are eager for a forum through which to better understand stakeholder concerns. Adults are 

often unclear as to the true needs of youth and often have no mechanism by which to surface those needs; 

moreover, adults are also unclear as to the mission and agenda of other organizations, and how to foster 

compelling collaboration.
52 White House Council for Community Solutions

Appendix C:

EXAMPLES OF NEW EFFORTS UNDER WAY

The Council deeply appreciates the over 300 individuals and organizations that took the time to share their insights 

and ideas.  Their counsel greatly influenced the Council’s work and strengthened the recommendations

in this report. The Council commends their continued commitment to supporting opportunity youth achieve 

their dreams. 

The Council would like to acknowledge the following new efforts on behalf of opportunity youth. This list is 

not intended to be all-inclusive, given that many more efforts are under way or will be launched in the future.

DRIVE THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUCCESSFUL CROSS-SECTOR COMMUNITY 

COLLABORATIONS

ASPEN FORUM FOR COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS

The Aspen Institute is creating the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions, to be led by Melody Barnes, former 

assistant to the president and director of the Domestic Policy Council for President Obama, along with a seniorlevel executive director to drive and manage the day-to-day work. The forum will spotlight success stories, educate 

national and local leaders about this strategy, and provide community leaders with some of the knowledge and tools 

they will need to launch a successful collaborative. 

The forum will focus on three key objectives:

•	 Engage and enlist community leaders to pull together for change. 

•	 Provide the knowledge and tools communities need to create effective collaboratives. 

•	 Incent more needle-moving community collaborations focused on opportunity youth through an opportunity 

youth incentive fund.

RECONNECTING OPPORTUNITY YOUTH – TULANE UNIVERSITY

In March 2012, the Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives at Tulane University launched its initiative 

Reconnecting Opportunity Youth. With funding support from AT&T, the Cowen Institute is examining the 

challenges that opportunity youth face, assessing services that are available to them currently in the Greater New 

Orleans area, and analyzing strategies that enable struggling youth to reach their potential and contribute to their 

community. Additionally, the institute is taking its findings and developing a specific community action plan to 

address the issue of opportunity youth in New Orleans—with the goal of creating an infrastructure of effective, 

sustainable, and meaningful services and programs that will prepare these young people for college and career. 

By sharing outcomes with the community and reaching out to key players, the Cowen Institute is laying the 

groundwork for collective impact. Following its call to action, the institute will initiate a citywide, multi-sector 

collaborative to accomplish systemic change and significantly increase the number of young New Orleanians who 

embark on paths that lead to careers and engaged lives.
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 53

UNITED WAY OPPORTUNITY COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS

AND COMMON GOOD AWARDS

United Way Worldwide planned a series of Opportunity Community Conversations to bring together people, 

businesses, government, and nonprofits to create real change in education, income, and health. This resulted in 

more than 125 Community Conversations occurring from February through March 2012. These conversations are 

serving as the springboard for community-based action including new partnerships and jobs initiatives.

Additionally, United Way Worldwide launched a new effort to recognize collaboratives and partnerships that 

are advancing education, income, and health. The awards highlight innovative and promising practices from 

communities around the world that are making measurable progress in education, income and health—the building 

blocks for a good quality of life. 

There were three overall award winners announced at the United Way Town Hall in May: The United Way 

Common Good Award for Advancing Education, Advancing Income, and Advancing Health. Winning community 

collaboratives each demonstrate a shared understanding of their community’s challenges and a commitment to 

taking a joint approach to addressing them.

FAMILY INDEPENDENCE INITIATIVE AWARDS

The new Family Independence Initiative (FII) Award will recognize and reward groups of families, friends, and 

community members who have taken it upon themselves to organize and create solutions to engage and reconnect 

their youth to the larger community. As examples of how all communities are full of families with ideas, wisdom, 

and determination, honorees will inspire others to organize in their own communities. 

There are numerous excellent programs that exist for young people, but often the most productive engagement 

for youth is with their families and friends in their communities. These everyday heroes don’t work through 

an organization or agency; they do it on their own. They do it without the support of programs, services, or 

philanthropic funding. The FII Award will provide seed funding over two years to recognize four self-organized 

groups each year. It will also provide a venue for sharing with the nation that the seeds of change exist in our most 

disenfranchised communities. 

OPPORTUNITY NATION INITIATIVES

Opportunity Nation (ON) is working along three key avenues to ensure ongoing progress for opportunity youth. 

ON will be hosting a revised and updated interactive version of Employer Tool Kit: Connecting Youth to Employment, 

as well as the Community Collaboratives Tool Box. It is working with Columbia University to ensure that the national 

data from The Economic Value of Disconnected Youth will be available on a community level. ON is also creating 

a plan of action for both public and private sectors to reach at least one million opportunity youth with efforts to 

reconnect them to education and employment.
54 White House Council for Community Solutions

Opportunity Nation is a broad coalition of nearly 200 businesses, nonprofits, educational institutions, and military 

organizations seeking to create a shared, bipartisan plan to create better skills, better jobs, and better communities. 

ENGAGE YOUTH AS LEADERS IN THE SOLUTION

THE SPARKOPPORTUNITY CHALLENGE

The SparkOpportunity Challenge is an initiative of SparkAction in partnership with the Youth Leadership Institute 

and dozens of leading youth-engagement organizations across the country. During the spring of 2012, young people 

were encouraged to propose their own visionary yet viable solutions to create jobs, build and enhance skills, and 

bring about real change for opportunity youth. The approaches to create local jobs generated through this challenge 

have the potential to be replicated in other communities. 

Participants were instructed to upload a short video and/or text description of their ideas to SparkAction’s contest 

platform. Winners to be announced in June 2012, will receive seed grants and technology to support starting 

their project up, and other opportunities, such as the chance to share their ideas with CEOs, government officials, 

and business leaders, and to receive feedback and assistance with implementation, a promotional video featuring 

their ideas, and help with fund-raising. (Winners will be listed on the Challenge web site, http://sparkaction.org/

sparkopportunity.)

The goal of the six-week challenge is to identify viable youth-driven solutions and to highlight the ideas and 

perspectives of young people. In the longer term, the challenge presents an opportunity to implement the winning 

ideas in communities around the country, potentially informing national strategies to improve the workforce and 

economy.

YOUTH LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE YOUTH AMBASSADORS

Over the past few months, the Youth Leadership Institute has recruited and trained 11 “youth ambassadors” to raise 

awareness and spark action on behalf of opportunity youth by serving as spokespeople in local and national forums.

The youth and young adults were selected because of their powerful personal stories about overcoming challenges to 

successfully engage in education and work, many of them through vital pathways that provided them with real work 

skills, mentors, internships, and social and financial support.

The Youth Leadership Institute created the Youth Ambassador Program as part of its effort to help bring powerful 

youth voices to national and community discussions inspired by the work of the White House Council for 

Community Solutions. 
Final Report: Community Solutions for Opportunity Youth 55

BUILD MORE ROBUST ON-RAMPS TO EMPLOYMENT

SUMMER JOBS+

Summer Jobs+ is a call to action for businesses, nonprofits, and government to work together to provide pathways 

to employment for low-income and disconnected youth in the summer of 2012. As of May 2012, this initiative 

is providing nearly 300,000 opportunities. Employment opportunities include 90,000 paid jobs and thousands of 

mentorships, internships, and other training opportunities. This initiative is also launching the Summer Jobs+ Bank, 

a new online search tool to help connect young people to jobs, internships, and other employment opportunities this 

summer and year-round. 

SAN FRANCISCO SUMMER JOBS+ LAUNCH

Inspired by the Department of Labor’s Summer Jobs+ program, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and United Way of the 

Bay Area announced the launch of San Francisco Summer Jobs+ in April 2012. The initiative aims to create 5,000 

jobs and paid internships for young people this summer. It is San Francisco’s local response to President Obama’s 

national call to action for businesses, nonprofits, and government to provide pathways to employment for young 

people, especially low-income and disconnected youth.

A local youth employment program, MatchBridge, will take the lead in the program to support young job seekers 

with resources such as work-readiness workshops, resume writing assistance, interview tips, and job-search 

coaching. MatchBridge will also work with employers to ensure a good match with youth employees.
56 White House Council for Community Solutions

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