by Jennifer Thompson, Senior Director, Equal Measure
Adapting and Expanding Education and Career Pathways
From 2021 to 2024, Equal Measure served as the evaluation and learning partner for the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s LEAP (Learn and Earn to Achieve Potential) national initiative. The initiative adapted and expanded education and employment pathways, tailoring them for youth and young adults who had been involved in the foster care or justice systems, or who had experienced homelessness, with the goal of seeing them succeed in school and work.
A subset of six organizations in diverse communities across the country adapted programming to this population and pursued opportunities to reach more systems-involved young people, including expanding into new geographic areas. To meet the complex needs of these young people, the organizations began working with new cross-sector partners and youth leaders in their communities to better connect young people with services and pathways toward positive economic trajectories (see LEAP evaluation reports for more details on the six LEAP partnerships).
Five Common Factors for Success
Through wide-ranging, in-depth interviews over three years, we learned valuable lessons on how communities can best engage young people in education and employment, support them in overcoming systemic barriers, and help them to thrive. Five common factors emerged across the six diverse LEAP partnerships that helped reach more youth, expand programs into new communities, and coordinate needed programs and resources across an ecosystem for greater effectiveness and impact. The promising practices (the five “C’s”) can accelerate success for nonprofits and public sector partners hoping to connect young people in their communities to education, job training, and other support services.
1. Co-location
Locating services directly within partner institutions and systems significantly decreased barriers to participation for young people. For example, one multi-service nonprofit found placing staff from their programs in the local charter school and on the campus of their community college improved students’ retention and educational success. A bridge program for young people transitioning out of the justice system was located inside the local justice facility, allowing staff to begin working with youth prior to their release. Co-location met young people where they were and increased access to and participation in services.
“LEAP has helped. At one point in time … I wasn’t going to school, I completely stopped. [Then] I went back to school and that’s when LEAP came into my school, and I had my first specialist … [I wanted] to go to school to see my specialist and for them to give me resources that I needed.”
—LEAP participant
2. Coaching
Supportive one-on-one relationships between adult staff (with titles ranging from coaches to case workers, navigators, specialists, etc.) and young people were labor-intensive but paid dividends in helping young people successfully navigate complex systems like postsecondary education and workforce opportunities. Participants cited the personal guidance and mentorship of one-on-one support from LEAP staff as critical to overcoming roadblocks (both personal and systemic). The mentoring relationships were essential for youth to connect to and make the best use of resources in their communities, meeting their basic needs as well as attaining new educational and career goals.
“… they give you a personalized navigator, a career navigator to guide you to any scholarships that you need to apply to. How to apply to it, how to do resumes, how to do cover letters … and they personalize whatever educational goals or career goals that you have. And then they provide you opportunities so that you’re able to explore whatever areas you would like to explore.”
—LEAP participant
3. Cultural competence
LEAP partnerships noted the importance of understanding the nuances of local context when supporting young people, and especially when scaling their work into new communities. Materials, classes, and services were all adapted to meet young people’s needs and language preferences. At one partnership, employers were vetted for internship programs to ensure their support for Spanish-speaking youth. When scaling programs for Indigenous youth into a new region, a LEAP partnership led with cultural humility and invested time in learning the specific social and cultural context and history of the area. Deep and authentic relationships with experienced local partners as guides and trusted advisors were essential to building success in new communities.
“It was important to me that we came with cultural humility. … We know how to do this in [our home city], but that doesn’t mean we know how to do this here. And so, we have some ideas about how to do this, but we really need to work with you [local partners] and you need to tell us, what does this mean [here]?”
—LEAP practitioner
4. Champions
Finding “champions” at organizations or institutions they hoped to partner with was essential to LEAP partnerships’ success. Individual champions believed in the value of connecting the work and facilitated institutional support and successful long-term partnerships. One LEAP grantee, a statewide youth and family focused foundation, formed a strong relationship with the executive director of a center at the local university that supported students with lived experience in the foster care system and the justice system, as well as pregnant and parenting students and students facing hardship. The “champion” helped build a reciprocal relationship between the foundation and the center by making connections and referrals between the postsecondary institution and the community. Another nonprofit grantee credited strong relationships and open communication with school staff for the successful integration of LEAP programming in the school.
“… a big part of that [partnering with postsecondary institutions] is finding champions on campus that want to work with us. Because sometimes it’s going to be this office, at another campus it’s going to be this office, at some office is going to be an individual, and at another place it’s going to be a whole office or an administrator. It’s just trial and error to see what works.”
—LEAP practitioner
5. Credibility
The LEAP lead organizations’ status as trusted community organizations with established track records of serving young people helped pave the way for generative partnerships and relationships throughout their local ecosystems. The organizations ranged from large multi-service nonprofits to national organizations, foundations, and intermediaries, and were in geographically diverse areas and serving diverse populations. All brought existing experience and credibility in their communities, which accelerated their ability to build new ecosystems to support systems-involved youth and scale education and career pathways through new partnerships and increased advocacy.
“Over the years we’ve really grown. People know about [our organization] in our state and we have a good reputation, and people know that we get things done. And, so, they [a housing coalition] came to us. [They] said, ‘we don’t know how to serve young people, and we really want to partner with somebody who does.’”
—LEAP practitioner
The Five C’s Are Accelerants for Positive Change in Youth Support
From our time spent learning alongside these diverse organizations, we learned that prioritizing the five C’s (Co-location, Coaching, Cultural Competence, Champions, Credibility) in efforts to support systems-involved youth, and really all youth looking to connect or reconnect, can accelerate both individual youth participation in supportive programming and the process of better aligning systems to serve young people in their communities more effectively.