There is a critical need to identify solutions to the unemployment of high school dropouts. When a student prematurely leaves school, the economic, social, and political impacts result in negative consequences for the individual and the community. Of the nearly 2.2 million students who drop out of high school every year in the United States,…

Peer Resources is at the heart of positive youth development. Trained youth serving in roles such as mentor, tutor, mediator, leader, and educator can change the norms of a school and community. Utilizing people as resources is an important concept to embrace. During the last seven years, peer mentors have reduced the drop-out rate of 16- and…

On February 17, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law. Passed in response to the 2008 recession, the Act's purpose was to create jobs, pump money into the economy, and encourage spending. Through the Act, states received $1.2 billion in funding for the workforce investment system to provide…

This report focuses on the seven original Youth Transition Demonstration (YTD) projects selected for funding in 2003. Three of the original seven projects were selected for a national random assignment evaluation in 2005; however, this report only focuses on program operations prior to joining the random assignment evaluation for the three…

Describes the philosophy, objectives, and practices of Girls Clubs of America, a national service and advocacy organization for preparing girls six through 18 years of age for future employment. (MP)

The Youth Employment Summit (YES) began as a response to two powerful and ominous global realities. First, youth populations worldwide are burgeoning while employment opportunities for young people are diminishing. The second is the absence of a coordinated, international effort to address the pervasive problems caused by widespread youth…

This paper presents the history of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT). The origins of the specialist schools programme lie in a meeting to address high levels of youth unemployment held at the House of Lords in January 1986, the result was the establishment of 100 technology schools to meet the skills needs of new business. In the…

Describes several work training programs for youth administered by the Department of Labor, Office of Youth Programs. (SS)

Describes work done by Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973 (CETA) trainees as archeological technicians in salvaging underwater treasure from shipwrecks. (MF)

The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 (Public Law 105-220) marked a major reform in the nation's job training system. It consolidated more then 60 federal training programs into three block grants to states: (1) adult employment and training; (2) disadvantaged youth employment and training; and (3) adult education and family literacy…

The authors outline a proposal for job experience vouchers as a possible answer to financing the acquisitions of adequate work experience for youth employment programs. The proposal works by giving an incentive to employers to seek out ways of profitably employing new labor market entrants, the underemployed, and the unemployed. (CT)

Outlines some of the achievements of the Summer Program for Economically Disadvantaged Youth (SPEDY) during the summer of 1978. Four programs in Virginia, Minnesota, Texas, and Washington are examined not because they are exemplary but because they illustrate what is happening in some of the better youth employment programs around the country. (CT)

Both economic and sociological analyses of the "youth problem" tend to segregate young people into two classes: those who will make it through the system as it exists, and those who will need help to make it. The resulting programs for those who need help often have the effect of further stigmatizing the participants. By contrast, a program which…

Describes the operations of the Job Opportunity Bureau for Students (JOBS), run cooperatively by four private Seattle high schools as a clearinghouse for their students on paid jobs and on volunteer, educational, and other summer experiences. (SJL)

Describes the Jobs for Bay State Graduates component of Jobs for America's Graduates, a private sector-oriented youth employment program. (FL)