White Paper: Improving Community Responses Employment & Education for Transition-Aged Youth
There are countless policies, laws, research, training, and white papers that talk about the challenges transition-aged youth are experiencing. Yet even with this focus, direct service providers continue to state that employment and education is top on their list of needs for transition-aged youth. MANY convened providers from 31 states, representing various sectors of the youth services field, to a roundtable discussion. The goal was to highlight what’s working in their programs and to share critical challenges. As part of this discussion, providers identified emerging or persistent needs in their local communities. Multiple themes emerged, but none were more prevalent than the employment and education challenges of transition-aged youth. From housing programs, to substance abuse programs, to mental health programs – all identified education and employment as the top two challenges youth and young adults were experiencing. Following this convening, a series of calls and additional in-person meetings were conducted to dive deeper into the root of these challenges – identifying the top barriers that transcended specific localities or states. This white paper synthesizes those barriers, cross-walks these barriers with existing evidence, and shares recommendations crafted by the field.
