Chicago

Opportunity
Youth
August 2018

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Thrive Chicago mobilizes the ecosystem
of youth serving organizations to
collaborate and innovate to improve
outcomes for Chicago's youth at scale.
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Placeholder:
OYWG
background

3
15 of every
100 youth in
Chicago are
Opportunity
Youth

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Either replace with OY reconnection
pitch slide

Or make the last 2 demogr. Larger

Opportunity
Youth
Demographics

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 OY specific (84 orgs) ----
xt slide

Organizations
serving youth
vary in size and
location

A total of 116 organizations responded to

the Landscape Scan

43% have annual budgets of less than

$1,000,000

Services are concentrated in the south and

west side communities of Chicago

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Most
organizations
serving
opportunity
youth report
significant
experience and
organizational
commitment to
serving those
young people

84 (72%) of 116 responding organizations Over half (54%) of responding

report serving opportunity youth organizations serve more than 100
opportunity youth / year
Serving opportunity youth is a core part
of mission for 76% of these organizations

Over half of responding organizations

have been serving the population for at
least 10 years (57%)
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Key
Findings

1 2 3 4
Organizations Engagement Few Offering
are Serving Difficulties Organizations Comprehensive
Fewer Women Make Reaching Report Concrete Services Would
and Youth over the Entire Connections Better Align
age 18 Population with Employers With Diverse
Challenging Youth Needs

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4 out of every 5 OY is 20-24 years old
Organizations
are Serving
Fewer Youth
over age 18 and
Women

While youth ages 20-24 comprise

80% of the population, services for
opportunity youth peak at age 18

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Organizations
are Serving
Fewer Youth
over age 18 and
Women

Organizations report serving more men 68% of youth served have been
despite women comprising nearly half of disconnected for less than 1 year
the population

Source: https://greatcities.uic.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Abandoned-in-their-Neighborhoods.pdf 11
Key
Findings

1 2 3 4
Organizations Engagement Few Offering
are Serving Difficulties Organizations Comprehensive
Fewer Women Make Reaching Report Concrete Services Would
and Youth over the Entire Connections Better Align
age 18 Population with Employers With Diverse
Challenging Youth Needs

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 Less resource-intensive youth
Engagement engagement strategies are more
Difficulties frequently cited
Make Reaching
the Entire
Population
Challenging

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Engagement Only 24% of organizations report
Difficulties having a waiting list
Make Reaching
the Entire Organizations reporting waiting lists
Population are more likely to recruit youth via
Challenging referrals, easily accessible
locations, texting / phone calls,
street outreach, peer recruiters and
home visits

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 Built around the needs of OY population, including non-traditional
Engagement Flexible hours, bringing staff and services to neighborhoods / blocks
Difficulties Staffing Model where OY live
Make Reaching
the Entire Relatable Important to hire staff that youth can relate to (“from
neighborhood, have lived the life”)
Population Staff
Challenging
Establishing Many OY have engaged with services that failed to deliver or live
Trust up to promises in the past

Youth are looking for jobs so that they can support themselves;
Interviewed organizations Lead with leading with training and services without income supports can
cite a number of youth a Job lead to disengagement, particularly for most disconnected youth
engagement practices as
potentially effective
Multiple opportunities for youth to fail or reengage and multiple
Provide a Longer
options for engagement (flexible structure to engage and meet
Runway differentiated needs)

Build Services Understand the needs of youth and articulate a value proposition
Around the that resonates with OY population
Needs of OY
Many Youth Serving
Organizations Expanding to serve OY is particularly challenging for
Structured Around organizations that typically have school-based partnerships; they
School-Based don’t have an outreach infrastructure and their staff are often not
Partnerships experienced in street outreach
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Engagement Sustainable, consistent and adequate funding
Difficulties
Make Reaching
the Entire
Sustained youth engagement
Population Funding was most
Challenging often related to
youth engagement
and connecting
youth with other Connection to other services to support diverse OY needs
services

Lack of employment opportunities for OY

Greatest challenges facing
organizations serving OY
Themes from Open Ended
Survey Responses and
Interviews (n = 79) Funder grant constraints

Staff support / retention

Youth not trusting organizations to follow-

through

Designing efficient, sustainable programming that can meet

differentiated needs
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Key
Findings

1 2 3 4
Organizations Engagement Few Offering
are Serving Difficulties Organizations Comprehensive
Fewer Women Make Reaching Report Concrete Services Would
and Youth over the Entire Connections Better Align
age 18 Population with Employers With Diverse
Challenging Youth Needs

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Few
Organizations
Report Concrete Organizations report lack of job Skill development and engagement are top
Connections opportunities (52%), lack of work programmatic goals for organizations serving
with Employers experience (46%) and justice opportunity youth
involvement (46%) as the top
barriers to education and
employment for the youth they are
serving

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Few
Organizations
Report Concrete 85% of organizations provide skills Job placement and retention services
Connections development, Career exploration (67%), focused on resume development,
with Employers job placement (51%) and case interview coaching and job search
management (51%) are also commonly assistance
offered to youth

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Few
Organizations
Report Concrete Nearly 70% of OY serving organizations Organizations are partnering most often
Connections reported that there are additional services with other CBOs, educational institutions
with Employers they would like to provide for OY, but have and local agencies, but few are partnering
been unable to fund with employers

The most commonly cited additional

services (40%) related to workforce
development / employment opportunities:

Paid work experiences Year-round

Transitional jobs employment
Internships opportunities
Apprenticeships and
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Key
Findings

1 2 3 4
Organizations Engagement Few Offering
are Serving Difficulties Organizations Comprehensive
Fewer Women Make Reaching Report Concrete Services Would
and Youth over the Entire Connections Better Align
age 18 Population with Employers With Diverse
Challenging Youth Needs

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Offering
Comprehensive
Services Would
Better Align
With Diverse
Youth Needs

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Key
Findings

1 2 3 4
Organizations Engagement Few Offering
are Serving Difficulties Organizations Comprehensive
Fewer Women Make Reaching Report Concrete Services Would
and Youth over the Entire Connections Better Align
age 18 Population with Employers With Diverse
Challenging Youth Needs

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Organizations
are Serving
Fewer Youth
over age 18

While youth ages 20-24 comprise

80% of the OY population, services
for OY peak at age 18

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 Only 24% of organizations report
having a waiting list

Organizations reporting waiting lists

are more likely to recruit youth via
referrals, easily accessible
Engagement locations, texting / phone calls,
street outreach, peer recruiters and
Difficulties home visits

Make Reaching
the Entire
Youth
Population
Challenging

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What does this all mean?

While most OY are older youth who are disconnected for

longer and thus need to be actively recruited, most
organizations serve younger OY.

Fewer resources than needed are allocated to active

recruitment of older OY.
Part II: How education & race impact jobs & wages
Black and Latinx
students are
more likely to
unemployed and
earn lower
wages

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Yes, education
Matters

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 Black youth with a
college degree are
more than 3 times as
likely to be
unemployed than
white youth with a
However, education college degree
is not a panacea….
Of those that are
employed, black
youth make $14000
less than their white
counterparts

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 Organizations report lack of job
opportunities (52%), lack of work
experience (46%) and justice
involvement (46%) as the top barriers to
education and employment for the OY
they are serving
Few Organizations
Report Concrete
Connections with
Employers

OY serving organizations are

partnering most often with other
CBOs, educational institutions and
local agencies, but few are
partnering with employers

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(summary of second data)
Citywide reports:
For more
information on
opportunity youth
and young people
in general
In depth, data-driven look at Comprehensive, disaggregated
Chicago's Opportunity Youth view of Chicago youth
and the exciting work to offer outcomes, cradle to career and
reconnection pathways the collective efforts to drive
improvements

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Amrit - amehra@thrivechi.org
Mackenzie - mmagnus@thrivechi.org
Raunak - rpednekar@thrivechi.org

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Random notes I saw
(below)