NYEC’s new report, Opportunity Youth and Employer Engagement: Evidence and Next Steps for an Emerging Fields. Our goal with this literature review is to examine past research, case studies, toolkits, and other evidence from the field on employer engagement, with an eye toward developing an evidence-based pathway to optimizing and expanding employer engagement strategies that work.

NYEC’s August 2022, "Identifying Gaps in Youth Employment Programs’ Capacity to Address Youth Mental Health Needs." A nationwide survey revealed the readiness of youth programs across the United States to respond to the youth mental health pandemic; the processes and systems providers have in place to fight the crisis; and what supports they need to combat this ongoing, life-threatening challenge.

[July 1, 2022] Between July 2021-June 2022 NYEC conducted a 10-city community of practice between juvenile justice officials, workforce-development officials, and youth leaders who worked to build formal and long-lasting collaboration between both systems. Topics covered in monthly sessions include, “Implementing Effective Mental Health Practices in Programs,” “Leveraging Violence Prevention Efforts for Youth Employment,” “Enacting Youth Leadership,” and “Strategies to Maximize Employer Connections.”

[April 6, 2022] On Tuesday, the House Education and Labor Committee passed HR 7309, a bill to reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). 

The National Youth Employment Coalition (NYEC) improves the lives of the millions of young people who are out of school and out of work. We do this by improving the effectiveness of the organizations, and the systems, that serve these “opportunity youth.” We collect, study, and support the implementation of best practices, all with a strong equity focus.

Read Our Statement Here

[November 16, 2021] NYEC will be hosting "Ask Away!," a recurring monthly Q&A session, with the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Division of Youth Services (DYS). The DYS team will be there to answer any questions you might have on policy, performance metrics, eligibility, waivers, and more!

[June 21, 2021] For over a year, NYEC convened a working group of members and partners to discuss recommendations for the reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act (WIOA). Thomas (NYEC's Senior Advisor) even testified about these recommendations at a May 2021 congressional hearing. Our proposal contains bold recommendations including embedding social capital, a priority population framework, mental health/trauma and better performance measures. 

[May 13, 2021] The House Education and Labor Committee conducted a hearing on Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Reauthorization: Creating Opportunities for Youth Employment. Thomas Showalter, Senior Advisor to NYEC, made the case for bold action on youth employment via reauthorization of WIOA. Over the past year NYEC has convened several national organizations to recommend both technical and structural changes to WIOA as well as call on Congress to address youth disconnection during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

[April 30, 2021] NYEC released our latest report from the The Translating Adolescent Brain Science (TABS) project. The report details how several youth workforce agencies approached integrating three approaches that are informed by the science of adolescent brain development: executive skill development (ES), positive youth development (PYD), and trauma-informed care (TIC), collectively referred to as EPT approaches. 

The National Youth Employment Coalition, with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, has released Job Training for Youth with Justice Involvement: A Toolkit. The toolkit will help leaders and practitioners in both the juvenile justice system and workforce development system collaborate to effectively serve youth with justice involvement. This toolkit, directed at practitioners and leaders in the juvenile-justice system and others with limited familiarity with the workforce development system:

• Outlines evidence-based practices in youth workforce development,
• Provides an overview of the workforce system funded under the federal Workforce
  Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA),
• Makes recommendations for how to make WIOA-funded services work better for
  youth with justice involvement at the local level, and
• Lays out some key steps to forming effective interagency partnerships.