By Ron Schack, Ph.D., The Charter Oak Group, LLC

In 2014, The Hartford Opportunity Youth Collaborative began developing a Results-Based Accountability framework to guide and assess their work.   HOYC identified a set of quality of life indicators for youth, which serve to measure the extent to which the community is achieving desired quality of life results, such as educational success, employment, and self- sufficiency.

Educational Success

The primary indicator of educational success is the percentage of Hartford residents with at least an Associate’s degree.  While the data show a generally improving trend at the national, state, and local level, Hartford’s rate is almost less than half the rate in CT overall.

There are several additional measures of educational success that are worth examining, including the rate of chronic absenteeism, the English and Language Arts Performance index score, the Math performance index score, and the 4-year graduation rate. In all cases, Hartford is considerably lower than the overall state average.    These educational challenges are clearly precursors to difficulties with achieving another important result, employment.

Employment

While there is a downward trend in unemployment at the national, state and local level, a closer look reveals some disturbing disparities.  The unemployment rate for youth 16-19 was at 41.1% in 2018, while the rate for young adults 20-24 was 20.5%.   This is much higher than the overall unemployment rate for the city, and substantially higher than the rate for 16-19 year olds (18.5%) and 20-24 year olds (10.5%) nationally.  Keep in mind that these unemployment rates are for those looking for employment.  Labor force participation stands at 30.7 percent for 16-20 year olds, and 66.4% for 21-24 year olds, compared with national rates of 38.9% and 74.6% nationally.  Continued high rates of unemployment for youth lead to difficulties in earning enough income to achieve self-sufficiency, another important desired quality of life result.

Self-Sufficiency

The following chart shows the percent of residents earning at or below 200% of the poverty level, which has long been used as a proxy for self-sufficiency (although many argue this threshold is too long, and that 300 or even 500 percent of poverty should be used).  Even so, the percentage of Hartford residents earning at or below 200% of poverty is 61.8%, more than double the average rate in US and even worse in comparison with the average rate in Connecticut.   This trend is worsening in CT and Hartford, while improving slightly in the US overall.

Disconnected Youth

Youth not working or succeeding in school (and eventually not participating in school at all) is a clear driver of the above gaps in educational success, employment, and self-sufficiency. The Hartford Opportunity Youth Collaborative has focused on engagement of opportunity youth—those youth that are unemployed and not in school.  While the number of disconnected youth in Hartford has declined slightly, there are still over 4000 disconnected youth that need to be re-engaged.[LD4] 

Source:  ACS PUMS 5-Year Data, 2009-2013 through 2013-2017

The Aspen Institute has recently developed a set of Equity Measures for Opportunity Youth.[1]  These measures can help us understand different “dimensions of disengagement” and help us to develop strategies to reduce disconnection and help youth achieve these important quality of life results.

The following chart shows a comparison of the Hartford region (Hartford and surrounding towns)[2] with all 26 Aspen Opportunity Youth sites for which data were compiled. Four measures are presented:  Community Disconnection Rate, High School Disconnection Rate, Post-Secondary Disconnection Rate, and Workforce Disconnection Rate.  The data come from the 2017 American Community Survey Public Use Microdata (PUMS).

The first rate, the Community Disconnection Rate, shows the number of young people not in school and not working, as a percentage of the number of 16-24 year olds in the community.  Hartford is just slightly above the average of all sites on this measure. Of the 69,483 youth 16-24 youth included in denominator of the Hartford area measure, 9,456 were not in school or not working.  That is a significant number of youth that need help becoming re-engaged.  The disconnection rate for Hartford Black youth is slightly higher, at 15.1%, and significantly higher for Hartford Hispanic youth, at 25.1%.  This is considerably higher than the average rate for Hispanics across all included communities.    The disconnection rate is also significantly higher for males, at 18.5%.

The second rate, the High School Disconnection Rate, shows the number of young people not enrolled in high school as a percent of 16-24 year olds without a high school diploma or GED and not working.  Hartford is considerably higher (20.6% vs 13.8%) than the average of all sites on this measure.  Again the High School Disconnection rate for Hartford Hispanic youth is extremely high, at 43.6%. Unfortunately, the rate for Blacks is not available for this measure, due to limitations with the ACS sample.  The high school disconnection rate is also significantly higher for males, at 31.6%.  This is much higher than the average rate for males across all the sites, at only 15.4%.

The Post-Secondary Disconnection Rate shows the number of young people not enrolled in a post-secondary institution as a percent of 16-24 year olds with a HS diploma or GED who do not have a post-secondary credential and are not working, plus those that with a HS diploma or GED that do not have a post-secondary credential that are working.  Hartford is slightly higher than the average of all sites on this measure.  In Hartford, Hispanics have significantly higher rates on this as well (42.2%) while males have somewhat higher rates (at 27.6%).  Unfortunately, the rate for Blacks is not available for this measure, due to limitations with the ACS sample.  In Hartford, those who earn less than 200% of the poverty level also have a significantly higher rate of disconnection on this measure (49.6%, compared with 11% for those who earn more, and compared with 28.5% for those who earn less than 200% of poverty across all communities).

The Workforce Disconnection Rate shows the number of young people not working as a percentage of the number of 16-24 year olds with a PS credential, but not enrolled in a PS institution.  Hartford is considerably lower than the average of all sites on this measure.

No further demographic breakouts are available for this measure due to limitation with the ACS sample.

A Progressive, Interconnected Set of Challenges

These data show a set of interrelated challenges that start with difficulties in achieving academic success, leading to youth disengagement (particularly for Blacks, Hispanic, and male youth).  This disengagement leads to difficulties in finding employment, and continued challenges with further post-secondary preparation.  Ultimately, this is reflective in lower rates  of Post-secondary educational attainment, and lower rates of self-sufficiency. We need to ensure that we develop and enhance strategies to intervene early with youth struggling academically, to keep youth attending and engaged in school, to support those no longer likely to return to school, and to create viable paths to post-secondary education, employment, and self-sufficiency.

[1] Equity Counts: Tracking Opportunity Youth Outcomes.  Equal Measure, September 2019.

[2] This was done to allow for important disaggregations of the data:  Harford PUMS data alone was not sufficient for many of the demographic break-outs by measure; even with the other towns included there were still some omitted due to small cell size.  But, the addition of these towns is likely to underestimate the disparities identified in the above analysis.

Hundreds of youth, service providers and community members turned out for the Northeast Opportunity Youth conference in Hartford – sharing inspiration, resources, and stories and best practices.

Sponsored by State Rep. Toni Walker at the Legislative Office Building, the event highlighted work in Boston, Hartford, New York, Philadelphia and Portland, Maine addressing the needs of Opportunity Youth—at-risk young people ages 18 to 24 not actively engaged in school or the workforce. The programs, including the Hartford Opportunity Youth Collaborative, are united in partnership as the Y.E.S. Project, a national initiative of America’s Promise.

“In supporting Opportunity Youth in the fullest way we will also have the greatest impact on gaining full youth employment,” said Alex Johnson, president and CEO of Capital Workforce Partners. “With over 4,000 of Hartford’s young people considered OY, the issues facing them are too big for a single organization to handle alone. This has been one of my highest priorities and CWP is excited to lead the convening of groups from around Connecticut and Northeastern cities to support this goal.”

The Hartford Opportunity Youth Collaborative (HOYC) is a cross-sector collaborative, chaired by Mayor Luke Bronin, working to engage organizations and systems throughout Hartford to address the needs of youth. HOYC and its member organizations embrace collective impact, joining together to make change, and support career pathways, youth leadership and data collaboration — leading youth to post-secondary success.

“My hope is that we can have a coalition that will build a vibrant and inclusive economy so there will be a job available for every young person who wants to work and be a productive member of our society. This is critical, particularly for our urban areas, where we have high levels of youth employment,” said Rep. Walker (D-New Haven.) “It is imperative that we work to provide job opportunities for our children, especially in advanced manufacturing, healthcare, IT and other sectors, so they can succeed and help ensure the future of Connecticut.”

America’s Promise project design is grounded in research, and in listening to youth from around the country, said CEO & President John Gromerts. The result is a clear focus of effective preparation for youth employment, and a practice of involving youth.

Other speakers included employers, youth leaders, lawmakers, and partners, with breakout sessions exploring each city’s work. Facilitators were Juan Colon and Aleena Durant, youth participants in Hartford’s Our Piece of the Pie (OPP) leadership program.

“This is a youth-led leadership conference here today,” said Jim Boucher of Capital Workforce Partners, the backbone organization for the Hartford Opportunity Youth Collaborative, and another event sponsor. “We are all here to learn from each other.”

“Our youth are leaders, not observers,” said Hartford’s Vicki Gallon-Clark, speaking of her work with the Blue Hills Civic Association. “We are working with them to be accountable; they are expected to know how a law is made, they come here to the LOB and testify.” Each youth is assigned a Success Coach, she added, who works with the entire family, making sure “we are all speaking the same language” in support of the youth.

“It takes time,” added Paulette Cox, of New Britain’s OIC. “It is a lifetime transformation.”

Breakout sessions at the conference included:

A review of the Boston Launch Program, which supports the young adults of Boston, helping them go back to school, find long-term work, and pursue fulfilling careers. Launch connects young people to educational services designed to get them back on the road to college, as well as individualized career coaching to identify where they can best use their skills and experience. The presentation includes an overview of the model, a specific focus on on-ramps, training and career track employment – including the supportive coaching model. Click here for more information.

JobsFirstNYC, which leverages all available community, corporate, human, organization, private and public resources to bring out-of-school and out-of-work young adults into the economic life of New York City. JobsFirstNYC presented on “Transfer 2 Career Collaborative: A Pilot to Reimagine the School-to-Career Transition.” Click here for more information.

The Philadelphia Youth Network works to create coordinated systems that promote the attainment of academic achievement, economic opportunity, and personal success. Maintaining an ecosystem of diverse options is critical to creating a coordinated career pathway system. For 20 years the Philadelphia Youth Network has collaborated with key stakeholders to develop and sustain multiple pathways for opportunity youth. The PYN Career Development Framework organizes many strategies into a comprehensive system of services that support the skill development of youth and young adults. The session explored strategies to develop, enhance and expand a coordinated youth workforce development system. Chekemma J. Fulmore-Townsend, President & CEO was the lead presenter. Click here for more information.

The Hartford Opportunity Youth Collaborative, Our Piece of the Pie, Blue Hills Civic Association and Opportunities Industrialization Center of New Britain presented on several Opportunity Youth successful strategies. One of the topics for discussion was related to the successes of the Opportunity Works Program in Hartford. Presenters included: Jinelle Hooker, Our Piece of the Pie; Vicki Gallon-Clark, Blue Hills Civic Association; Paulette Fox, OIC-New Britain. Click here for more information and click here for more information.

In Portland Maine, The Youth and Community Engagement Team (YCE) at the Cutler Institute for Health and Social Policy, University of Southern Maine, has been working with individuals and community partners to create responsive policies and practices in Maine since the 1990s. YCE initiative and partnering organizations work to support Opportunity Youth in leveraging their leadership, connect to resources and build their skills as they transition into adulthood and independence. YCE staff Cheri Crossman and young leaders presented on the initiatives that enhance and expand Opportunity Youth’s engagement and attainment of post-secondary, career credentialing and meaningful work experiences. Youth spoke from their perspective and experience of key elements of leadership development and participating in state and national opportunities.  Cheri shared strategies and an overview of each initiative as well as information about Maine’s adaptation and implementation of the Back on Track Model (JFF) as part of Maine’s Learn and Earn to Achieve Potential (LEAP) initiative.  Lastly, youth leaders shared and discussed their perspective of what is still needed to move toward increasing public awareness of how to best support and engage youth, so that youth have the opportunity to obtain their goals and dreams and our communities can realize the benefits of these young people gaining meaningful and gainful employment. Click here for more information.