Key Takeaways

• Youth Jobs Connect is bridging the youth employment ecosystem on its new digital platform: YouthxJobs by breaking the barriers between youth, employers, youth employment programs, and government towards increasing opportunity, funding, and access to secure the right to employment opportunities before graduating from high school.

• Youth Jobs Connect is "mapping opportunities for youth with access to digital, blended, and COVID-ready jobs; foundational skill development for the Future of Work; and mentors and job coaches."
• The company is targeting Youths (Young people age 14-24), specifically, QTBIPOC youth, youth experiencing homelessness, youth in foster care, and undocumented youth.

Introduction

• The report provides some insights into companies that prepare BIPOC to join the workforce, educate employers on creating an inclusive and anti-racism work environment, and connect the BIPOC youth with the trained partner employers. For each company, we have provided the core offering, target audience, career path focus, communication strategy, types of companies/employers it works with, unique approach to diversity/inclusion/antiracism training, and the social media activities across various channels.

Youth Job Connect (YJC)

Core Offering

• Youth Jobs Connect is bridging the youth employment ecosystem on its new digital platform: YouthxJobs by breaking the barriers between youth, employers, youth employment programs, and government towards increasing opportunity, funding, and access to secure the right to employment opportunities before graduating from high school.

• Youth Jobs Connect is "mapping opportunities for youth with access to digital, blended, and COVID-ready jobs; foundational skill development for the Future of Work; and mentors and job coaches."
• Its core offerings include the Youth Ambassador Program, Digital Blueprint, and Internet Access.
• The Youth Ambassador Program aims to create a direct link between the YouthxJobs and young people in their community and community-based organizations, reach out to local media to discuss various issues facing young people joining the workforce, create social media messages and videos as an extension of the #YouthJobsNow campaign.
• The Digital Harbor Foundation was instituted to tackle "internet access, access to devices, and the development of a Future of Work curriculum inclusive of digital literacy, financial literacy, and career readiness to be delivered in a virtual simulation of remote working."
• Under the internet access offering, the program accesses the current state of internet access in cities and provides advice on program solutions that can help youths improve their internet access.

Target Audience

• The company is targeting Youths (Young people age 14-24), specifically, QTBIPOC youth, youth experiencing homelessness, youth in foster care, and undocumented youth.

• Its core platform, YouthxJobs is focusing on Gen Z who are newly entering the job market.

Focuses on a Particular Career Path

• The company is not focusing on a particular career path, rather, it integrates all components of youth employment programs into a solo unit thereby providing all stakeholders with access to a dashboard specific to their needs.

 

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Communication Strategy

• Its communication strategy is mostly digital via its website and through communication channels like social media, email marketing, blog posts, video content on YouTube or Vimeo, and so on.
• It also makes use of different hashtags on social media channels to project its offerings. These include #YouthJobsNow, #MyFirstJob, and #FundTheYouth.
• YJC has a series of videos describing its goals and objectives to its target market.
• The program is positioned as a link between youth, employment programs, and employers.

• It is also positioned as a platform that provides access to jobs, training, support services, and mentorship to start and build, toward a better future.
• YJC also outlines "how" it plans to accomplish its goals. They include:
•  Youth applications
•  Job matching 
•  Coach pairing, coupled with skill development for coaches in need
•  Participation tracking 
•  Nationwide mentorship program 
•  Digital curriculum for the future of work skill development

Types of Companies/Employers it Works With

• The company work with all types of companies beneficial to youth employment including mentors, job coaches, skill developers, and youth employment programs.
• Its partners include:
•  National partners: American Student Assistance, CLASP, Glads of Life, Pay our Interns, Youth Action Hour, Young Invincibles, Think of Us, Talk Hiring, and National Youth Employment Coalition.
•  Local Partners: CareerWise DC, Mass Workforce Association, Lets Go Boys and Girls, Seen & Heard, Plasia, Putting People First, Wide Angle Youth Media, and Just in Time.

• The program is supported by Schmidt Futures and its fiscal sponsors Digital Harbor Foundation.

Unique Approach to Diversity/Inclusion/Antiracism Training

• As of now, YJC has not drafted an official approach to diversity & inclusion or anti-racism. Its efforts based on the last edition of the Youth Empowerment Forum are to bridge the gap between employers of labor and youths.

Social Media Activity

• The company is active on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok.

Grads of Life

Core Offering

• Its core offerings include:
• Building an opportunity employment movement by demonstrating the benefits of inclusive and equitable talent practices
•  Supporting employers to build and implement inclusive talent strategies at scale
•  Mobilizing the opportunity talent workforce by prioritizing skills over traditional education and employment pathways
•  Addressing the opportunity gap, and helping to create a more economically just and sustainable society.

• This is achieved by providing employers of labor with resources to create a diverse and inclusive workforce such as:
•  Discovery & Insights
•  Advisory & Design
•  Learning & Development
•  Thought Leadership.

Target Audience

• It focuses on diverse talent pools, including opportunity youth, people who have been incarcerated, people with disabilities, and many others.

Focuses on a Particular Career Path

• Grads of Life does not focus on a particular career path but equips employers with the knowledge, tools, and infrastructure to access and benefit from Opportunity Talent – individuals who face barriers to employment, including lack of access to educational pathways.

Communication Strategy

• Its communication strategy is mostly digital via its website and through communication channels like social media, email marketing, blog posts (insights, case studies, best practices, and research works), video content on YouTube or and so on.
• It also ran a national multi-media (TV, radio, and print PSA) campaign designed in coalition with its partners, including Year Up, the Employment Pathways Project, ConPRmetidos, MENTOR, to shift employer perceptions.
• Other communication strategies employed by the company include publishing discovery & insights, advisory & design, learning & development, & thought leadership materials for companies to take a comprehensive approach to build equity and inclusion into their talent strategies.

• It also partnered with Bain & Company to create 10 proven actions to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Types of Companies/Employers it Works With

• The company works with all employers, irrespective of the industry of operation.
• Grads of Life works with top employers to create inclusive talent strategies towards delivering both social impact and business benefits.
• Its consultancy provides employers with the insights, tools, and partnerships to address talent needs while advancing racial and economic justice.

Unique Approach to Diversity/Inclusion/Antiracism Training

• Grads of Life has a unique approach to diversity designed by Bains and Company.
• The approach consists of 5 DEI pillars, which outlies 50+ best practices in partnership with Bain & Company that companies can adopt to drive strong DEI outcomes.

• The 5 DEI pillars are:
•  Strategy, governance & accountability mechanisms 
•  Establish DE&I as a strategic priority 
•  Allocate adequate resources and build accountability structures.
•  Equitable talent journey 
•  Adopt a skills-first approach in talent acquisition activities including sourcing, screening, and hiring
•  Build diverse talent pipelines through work-based experiences
• Create accessible skills and professional development pathways for all employees
• Develop programs to support career advancement among all staff.
•  Family-sustaining wages & benefits 
•  Develop processes and practices to address pay equity.
•  Inclusive culture 
•  Understand and address employee sentiment and inclusion
• Equip all employees to improve their understanding of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
•  External engagement 
•  Promote diversity within your supplier base.
• A full report on this framework is provided herein.

Social Media Activity

• The company is active on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

 

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The Hire Opportunity Coalition (HOC) in Partnership with Stella

Core Offering

• The Hire Opportunity Coalition, in partnership with Stella, is focused on creating the most comprehensive point of connection between frontline employers and opportunity youth.

• The coalition is working together to aid opportunity youth to connect with local employment opportunities.
• The core offering of the union is Stella, a talent platform shared by dozens of major national companies focused on the frontline and entry-level jobs in retail, restaurants, warehouses, and hotels that do not require extensive education and work experience.
• Stella makes it possible for opportunity youth to register on the platform and obtain a high-priority youth tag so that companies can filter and prioritize them for their open jobs, and OY can search for those jobs in their neighborhood.

 

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Target Audience

• Its target audience are opportunity youths (16-24-year-olds) in search of employment opportunities.

Focuses on a Particular Career Path

• It focuses on entry-level openings like cashiers, servers, customer service reps, warehouse workers, hotel staff, and jobs from America’s top employers such as ACE Hardware, Chipotle, Hilton, AT&T, Hyatt, and Wayfair.

Communication Strategy

• The coalition published a flyer to enable community-based organizations (CBOs) to share Stella with young people looking for employment.

 

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Types of Companies/Employers it Works With

• It works with national employers, including brands such as ACE Hardware, Chipotle, Hilton, AT&T, Hyatt, and Wayfair who participate on the Stella platform and leverage its power to avail OY candidates for their open jobs.

 

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Unique Approach to Diversity/Inclusion/Antiracism Training

• The partnership has not published any unique approach to diversity & inclusion or anti-racism.

Social Media Activity

• The coalition does not have any unique social media channel.

The Forum for Youth Investment

Core Offering

• The Forum for Youth Investment provides ideas, services, and networks required by leaders to make more intentional decisions that are favorable for young people.
• The company provides online advocacy training to young adult advocates, continuous improvement system implementation for afterschool networks, and collective impact learning labs for local planning teams.

• Its core offerings include:
•  Improving & aligning policies: This work helps policymakers, advocates, and rising leaders increase their capacity by aligning with other advocates, departments, sectors, and levels of government to use data and evidence to support the whole child.
•  Programs under this include:
• Advocacy and Action Center: SparkAction.org 
• Networks: The Children’s Cabinet Networks and The Opportunity Youth Network (OYN)
• Signature Initiatives: Opportunity Nation 
• Products & Services: The Reconnecting Youth Campaign and the Advocacy Academy, The Evidence for Improvement Project 
• Support for Major Projects: The Inter-Agency Working Group on Youth Programs and Performance Pilot Partnerships.
•  Planning & partnering for impact: This work supports boundary-spanning leaders charged with creating or implementing plans that require a focus on the bigger picture. Programs under this include:
• Technical Assistance Center: Big Picture Approach Training and Consulting 
•  Products & Services: Readiness by Design, Resources for Youth Development Champions, Thought Leader Interview Series, Learning Labs & Leadership Retreats, Conference and symposia planning, including Changing the Odds Convenings, and Strategic coaching and consulting.
• Support for Major Projects: The William T. Grant Scholars Program and Success360° Partners.
•  Strengthening practices & programs: This work empowers youth development, education, and human service system leaders to adopt, implement, and scale management and staff policies and practices that ensure young people have access to high-quality, coordinated supports they need to succeed. Programs under this include:
• Technical Assistance Center: The David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality 
•  Products & Services: Youth Program Quality Intervention (YPQI), Assessment via the Program Quality Assessment (PQA), Providing targeted trainings in Youth Work Methods related to areas identified for improvement, Preparing Youth to Thrive: Promising Practices for Social and Emotional Learning, and Applied research and evaluation to support program improvement, including statewide evaluation of 21st Century Community Learning Centers in Oklahoma and Arkansas.
• Support for Major Projects: Partnerships for Social and Emotional Learning Initiative, The National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development, and Youth Development Work Group.

• Other offerings by the company include:
•  Published newsletters, reports, guides, and tools
•  Workshops and trainings, both distance and on-site
•  In-depth technical assistance, strategic planning, and field research services
•  Facilitation for leader and community engagement
•  At-scale performance-based accountability systems
•  Data collection & assessment
•  Peer network management
•  Keynotes and presentations.

Target Audience

• The company targets children and youth to ensure their readiness for college, work, and life by 21 years.

Focuses on a Particular Career Path

• It doesn't focus on a specific career part but rather ensures the readiness of young people for college, work, and life.

Communication Strategy

• Its major communication source is the website and social media channels.

• On the website, it leverages different pages to communicate its positioning to the audience including webinars, events, news & blogs, Issue Briefs/Policy, PapersResources/Reports, case studies, among other resources.

Types of Companies/Employers it Works With

• It does not focus on specific company types but rather tailors its services to a diverse audience.
• It works with leaders committed to creating the shared accountability needed to chart and stay the course to improve the odds for children and youth.

Unique Approach to Diversity/Inclusion/Antiracism Training

• Its approach to equity is provided herein.

Social Media Activity

• The company is active on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Research Strategy