With leadership from City of Hartford and backbone organizational support from Capital Workforce Partners, Hartford Opportunity Youth Collaborative is leveraging more than $1 million in public and private resources for career pathway programming for young men of color between the ages of 18 and 24. These new investments aligned with Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act funds will improve the quality of life outcomes of our youth, strengthening our economy, and promoting a thriving city.
The collaborative is part of Opportunity Works, a national initiative of seven communities receiving Social Innovation Funds as subgrantees of Jobs for the Future (JFF). We are using JFF’s Back-on-Track postsecondary/career bridging intervention and taking a cross-system, cross-sector approach towards improving outcomes using a full pathway approach providing technical training and job experience in in-demand sectors – health care and manufacturing. Blue Hills Civic Association and Our Piece of the Pie are partnering with Asnuntuck, Capital, and Manchester Community Colleges to deliver academic skill development, youth development, college credit-bearing instructional programs, internships, and job that lead to sustaining wages. By 2018, 120 young men of color will be served.
RESOURCES
- My Brother’s Keeper
- My Brother’s Keeper Hartford Website and Plan
- Opportunity Works (JFF national initiative)
- Opportunity Works Hartford
- Social Innovation Fund
- My Brother’s Keeper Alliance Webinar featuring Hartford
