Grads of Life.org: A Business Driven Toolkit to Employ Opportunity Youth

At a time of record youth unemployment in America, employers struggle to find skilled entry-level talent through conventional hiring practices. There’s an untapped talent pool of young adults, called opportunity youth, that’s overlooked by many employers for entry-level jobs. When they are prepared and proven, these young adults bring resilience, loyalty and grit to their work that help make them valued employees. Many employers have found that the best way to start working with opportunity youth and build an employment pathway is to collaborate with established partner organizations that already have a successful employment pathway model in place. The Grads of Life campaign seeks to change perceptions employers have of young people with atypical resumes and offers the tools to connect leading employers to employment pathways, including mentoring, school-to-work, internships, and hiring. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation supported the development of this website created by Employment Pathways Project  in partnership with YearUp.