BEHIND THE INITIATIVE

Meet our partners, funders and friends.

"WE ARE COMMITTED TO SERVICE, DEDICATED TO RESEARCH AND LEARNING THAT ADDRESSES SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND ARE DEEPLY ENGAGED IN THE COMMUNITY—ENABLING US TO BE A PART OF THE SOLUTION WE WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD."

In 2017, the ASU Watts College of Public Service & Community Solutions and the Center for Human Capital and Youth Development became the backbone organization in the Greater Phoenix Metro Area for the national movement to reengage Opportunity Youth (OY). In Maricopa County, the mission and goals of this national initiative are carried out by Opportunities for Youth (OFY).  OFY is a coalition of over 70 governmental and nonprofit organizations from social service agencies, educational institutions, behavioral health, youth leadership and the business community committed to creating educational and career pathways for Opportunity Youth across Maricopa County. Under the leadership of Dean Jonathan Koppell, the initiative continues to find solutions to complex issues for Opportunity Youth.

For over 40 years, the Arizona Community Foundation has worked to improve the quality of life in Arizona by promoting and facilitating effective philanthropy. Our success is directly related to our generous donors who invest through the Arizona Community Foundation in our state's most effective nonprofit organizations.

In the last four years, the Arizona Community Foundation has invested in organizations and initiatives that support opportunity youth. Through comprehensive outreach and programming, these organizations equip young adults aged 16 to 24 with skills and resources to launch a career or pursue higher education. Each program has a uniquely effective approach to building connections between these young adults and the opportunities that await them.

The Center for Human Capital and Youth Development (CHCYD) is a space in which faculty, students, community partners, youth and policymakers can work together on research, practice and policy initiatives for youth to enhance their educational, employment and leadership opportunities.

The goal of CHCYD is to understand the strengths youth possess and the challenges they face in accomplishing positive educational, employment and life outcomes. We work with community partners and youth to design, implement, evaluate and disseminate evidence-based and community-inspired strategies and solutions to the educational and employment challenges our youth face. 

The city of Phoenix Youth and Education Office goal is to build connections between city services, community resources, and public schools to ensure Phoenix students succeed in school, life and career. ​​ While the city of Phoenix does not deliver K-12 education services, the support it provides to students and families can make the difference between academic failure and success.

The Hire Opportunities Coalition is a broad coalition of employers and community partners committed to hiring opportunity youth and helping businesses thrive. Our nation brims with five million opportunity youth, ages 16-24, out of school, ready to work, and filled with potential. With 7.1 million job openings, employers seek strong talent. We’re connecting these youth to jobs, apprenticeships, and internships, and helping businesses build their talent pipelines.

A national movement of employers, foundations, and community organizations, we’re committed to reinventing our hiring, retention, and advancement practices, to hire and train opportunity youth. Since 2015, we’ve brought together more than 55 national employers with private sector and nonprofit partners. We’re working together to access new sources of talent that have not traditionally been included in our nation’s prosperity. We’ve already met our first goal of ensuring 100,000 opportunity youth got hired and were supported to succeed.

In the United States, 4.6 million young people between the ages of 16 and 24 are neither in school nor working. About half are living in poverty.

Opportunity Youth United is a movement of young leaders who represent the real lives behind these numbers. We have suffered all manner of difficulties related to poverty and discrimination, have transcended them with the help of caring adults and excellent programs, and are dedicated to coming together to create a society in which it is recognized that all people are created equal, where there is liberty, opportunity and responsibility, justice and love, for all.  That is the America we aim to create in our lifetimes. Together, we will transform our nation through love and civic engagement.

Jobs for the Future (JFF) accelerates the alignment and transformation of the American workforce and education systems to ensure access to economic advancement for all. 

JFF drives change in the American workforce and education systems to promote economic advancement for all. Working at the national, state, and local levels, we facilitate collaboration among leading educators, employers, workforce development specialists, and policymakers who share the goal of expanding economic opportunity for all. With the rapid pace of change in our economy, JFF’s work is more important than ever. We concentrate on three areas that strengthen the workforce and increase success for individuals and employers: Ensuring equity in advancement, Meeting employer needs, and Preparing for the future of work. We focus on today’s most urgent issues while preparing for the future. 

The Aspen Institute is a nonpartisan forum for values-based leadership and the exchange of ideas. Aspen Institute experts are bringing a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives all aimed at doing the most good for the greatest number of people.

The Forum for Community Solutions plays an integral role in the national opportunity youth movement, including functions related to coordinating funding, producing research and learning, providing technical assistance and other activities. In collaboration with other partners, we convene the national Opportunity Youth Network and the national movement has seen much progress happen over just the few short years we’ve been working together. Our largest initiative, however, is in convening a funders collaborative and national network at scale of over two-dozen place-based communities across the U.S., called the Opportunity Youth Forum.

State Farm is committed to helping build safer, stronger, and better-educated communities. We embrace the responsibility to give back, volunteer, and work alongside nonprofits and community groups in our neighborhoods to make the world around us better. 

Diversity and inclusion are central to everything we do. It’s evident in every relationship we have – within the workplace where all associates are treated with respect and dignity, across the marketplace by how we interact with our customers and suppliers, and in the community through charitable giving and community service. Our commitment to diversity and inclusion is reflected in how we value relationships, how we conduct business, and how we lead our organization. We embrace diversity and inclusion because it’s simply the right thing to do.

Imagine a community where every individual has the opportunity to succeed, and Maricopa County thrives as a result.

Valley of the Sun United Way (VSUW) belongs to our community, so we seek community input on the most pressing issues, then we bring people, organizations and companies together to proactively solve them. As the ripple effects of the pandemic continue to unfold in ways none of us could have imagined, we’re going back to our roots by nimbly responding to the fast-changing and evolving needs of families and individuals in our community and the non-profits and schools that serve them. In 2020, VSUW established the United for the Valley COVID-19 Fund (UVCF)-Special Initiatives to identify and support the emerging and fast-changing needs of health and human services organizations, schools, and the individuals and families they serve due to COVID-19. It is designed to help adapt to the most pressing needs in the Valley due to COVID-19 as they evolve in real time related to mental and physical health, special needs, domestic violence, and out- of-school time.

The National Youth Employment Coalition (NYEC) improves the lives of the more than 4.6 million young people who are out of school and out of work. 

Unique in the opportunity-youth space, NYEC represents organizations that serve and study opportunity youth, bringing the wisdom of practitioners to policymakers and the fields of workforce development, education, youth development, and rehabilitation services. NYEC represents and speaks for organizations that are the leaders in serving opportunity youth – and those that are at earlier stages of the journey.