This chapter describes developmental needs of emerging young adults and how they are often met, or not met, in faith communities. The author offers recommendations for creating better connections with today's emerging young adults.

Background: The current global cohort of youth has been called "a generation at-risk", marked by a dramatic rise in youth who are not in employment, education or training programmes. In 2010, youth were three times as likely as adults to be unemployed, with youth unemployment worsening in 2012 and 2013. Accordingly, there is an urgent…

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,…

The Social Security Administration is funding a random assignment evaluation of six demonstration projects to improve employment and other outcomes for youth ages 14 to 25 who are either receiving disability benefits or are at high risk of receiving them in the future. This report reviews the Youth Transition Demonstration (YTD) projects, located…

Students, a large percentage with disabilities, are at high risk for poor post-secondary outcomes in state agency education programs. This mixed-methods study describes the understandings of student transitions in state agency education programs from the perspectives of youth and administrators. Results indicated that: transition is more narrowly…

For young people who have dropped out of school, are out of work, or lack connections to family or other caring adults, there are often no easy answers. Their hopes for a better life are frequently no different than those harbored by their more advantaged peers, but their path to adulthood is rendered more difficult by tangled combinations of…

This paper presents the annual report of the Philadelphia Youth Network (PYN) for 2005. Throughout the year, PYN's members continued their focus on linking work and education in ways that promote access for young people to Philadelphia's growth economy, and supply a high-quality workforce to power the City's continued economic development. [For…

The intent of this manual is to provide some templates and direction to schools that are looking for ideas of how to incorporate work experience into their curriculum for youth with disabilities. Hamilton Middle School served as a pilot site for one of the Rural Institute Transition Projects from 2006-2008. The school administration eagerly…