Youth Advocacy
There are organizations across the nation fighting the good fight to advocate for youth in the myraid of ways they need and deserve. Youth Jobs Connect’s mission is to connect the ecosystem. Below, you’ll find groups, campaigns, and bills that we support and endorse! Is your organization launching something new? Let us know and we’ll feature it here and share across social.
Connecting Youth to Jobs Act
Key Ideas:
⁃ Support employment opportunities for youth with barriers to unemployment and historically disadvantaged populations, with a minimum wage of $15.
⁃ Establish a $10 billion competitive grant for providing wraparound services to youth employment program participants and work-based learning opportunities for youth.
⁃ Direct the Department of Labor (DOL) to collect youth employment program performance data and submit a report to Congress. Learn more.
Foster Youth Mentoring Act
The Foster Youth Mentoring Act is centered on expanding resources available to mentoring programs and organizations that serve young people in the child welfare system. Mentoring programs that serve youth in foster care provide these resilient youth with the social capital and resources they need to develop positive relationships and valuable social connections. Quality mentoring that includes mentor training, ongoing match support, and screening for potential volunteer mentors provide invaluable support to the agencies and organizations that are working collaboratively to improve outcomes for foster youth. Learn more.
Youth Workforce Readiness Act
Bipartisan legislation was recently introduced in Congress to address the opportunity and skills gap currently facing America’s youth. The Youth Workforce Readiness Act of 2021 would invest in the workforce of tomorrow by creating a grant program through the Department of Labor to support out-of-school time youth-serving organizations providing workforce readiness programs for youth ages 6 to 18. Learn more.
Youth In Gov
Key Ideas:
- Build an Office of Young Americans: Establish an independent Office within the Executive Office of the President (EOP) that is devoted to inter-agency youth-programming collaboration would allow the federal government to better respond to and implement the expertise of the largest, most diverse generation of Americans.
- Appoint a Director of Youth Engagement: Appoint a Director of Youth Engagement to oversee the Office for Young Americans and sit on the Domestic Policy Council and engage with the National Security Council.
- Empower youth in official administration positions: Build out opportunities for Young Americans and create a diverse public service pipeline through the Office of Presidential Personnel devoting a staffer to the hiring of Young Americans into government. Learn more.
Youth Action Hour
Youth Action Hour is a youth of color-led media platform focused on amplifying the power of youth leaders across the country. Youth Action Hour produces short-form content at the intersection of education, policy, and advocacy. Through social media, its flagship segment The Future We Need, and an interactive town hall series, Youth Action Hour empowers their audience to take meaningful actions to mobilize our communities. Learn more.
Think Of Us
Think Of Us is a systems change firm focused on transforming child welfare by leveraging lived experience and system proximity to drive systems change. Their research shows that the foster care system is failing youth who age out. Find out how we can be doing better in their Aged Out Report. Learn more.
Pay Our Interns
Pay Our Interns was founded in 2016 and led by two formerly unpaid interns of color. It is the nation’s only organization fighting to ensure all students — especially Black, Latinx, and Native American students — have equitable access to professional career paths through the implementation of paid internships countrywide. They do this through research, educating employers and students, and sharing the stories of marginalized youth. Learn more.
New Deal for Youth
For more than seven months, young leaders from communities across the country have been working to develop policy ideas and solutions on the issues that most impact their lives. The New Deal for Youth Policy Platform advances radical and interconnected policy ideas that transform current systems and that center racial, gender, and social justice. Its policies seek to redefine whose expertise, experiences, and systems of knowledge are valued, understanding that young people both deserve a seat at the decision-making table and can shake the table and create the menu. Hear what matters to them – and to all of us – and learn how you can get involved. Register at newdealforyouth.org.
The Reconnecting Youth Campaign
The Reconnecting Youth Campaign calls on Congress to invest in America’s future by funding 1 million pathways to education, training, national service and employment opportunities for Opportunity Youth, 16- to 24- year-olds who are not in school or work. Learn more.