As Congress works to finalize its FY25 appropriations and look towards FY26, we are urging them to invest in young people and our communities.

As a coalition of national organizations that work to support opportunity youth, RYC is urging Congress to pass a final Fiscal Year 2025 appropriations bill and to provide an increase of 20% investments for programs that serve Opportunity Youth as you consider appropriations for Fiscal Year 2026.

February 1, 2025

The Reconnecting Youth Campaign (RYC) is a coalition of national, state, and local organizations that work to scale up effective federally funded programs that connect young people to education, employment, and training. We are writing to express the importance of providing robust funding in federal investments for programs that serve Opportunity Youth. These federal investments play an essential role in enabling young people to gain work experience, achieve economic self-sufficiency, and contribute to the economy. We urge you to pass a final Fiscal Year 2025 appropriations bill and to provide an increase of 20% investments for programs that serve Opportunity Youth as you consider appropriations for Fiscal Year 2026.

Opportunity youth, defined as young people ages 16 to 24 out of school and out of work, are in every community across the United States. Measure of America recently released its report, Broad Recovery, Persistent Inequity, in which it presents 2022 youth disconnection rates and highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic created sharp upward spikes in youth disconnection within all states. In Oklahoma, 13.2% of young people ages 16 to 24 are disconnected, totaling 67,000 opportunity youth; 13,9350 of those young people reside in Oklahoma’s fourth district. In Connecticut, 9.3% of young people ages 16 to 24 are disconnected, totaling 40,900 opportunity youth. Research shows that being disconnected as a young person has long-term consequences; it is associated with lower earnings, less education, worse health, and even less happiness in later adulthood.

Every young person needs support to succeed, from financial assistance to mentorship, to access to essential needs such as housing, food, and dependable transportation. Opportunity youth are no different from others struggling in our country, but they face additional unique barriers. Opportunity youth include young people who are disabled, are parents, have experienced homelessness, have been impacted by the juvenile justice system, and have been involved in the foster care system. Despite the steep climb that many opportunity youth face, they are eager to pursue the American Dream and build a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities.

The programs and services funded through these appropriations have a profound impact on young people’s well-being, reconnection, job training, education and skills attainment, and overall productivity. Major increases in the following federally funded programs will strengthen the reach and impact of valuable organizations working within local communities to support Opportunity Youth and improve outcomes. It will be a step towards the scale our country needs.

We urge you to invest a minimum of 20% increase above FY24 in the following programs to provide more opportunities for young people:

AmeriCorps

AmeriCorps State and National

• An increase in these funds help communities that depend on AmeriCorps. AmeriCorps members are the “people power” that community organizations train and deploy to respond to our country’s most immediate and critical needs.

AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps

• AmeriCorps NCCC provides participants with work experience while supporting climate change mitigation, building affordable housing and disaster response.

National Service Trust

• An increase in these funds ensures that there is funding for Segal AmeriCorps Education Awards, which participants can use to repay qualified student loans and/or to pay current educational expenses at eligible institutions of higher education and training programs.

Department of Labor

WIOA Youth Activities

• Providers of these programs work with local employers to develop education and training that responds to the needs of local businesses and provides participants with necessary skills to enter the workforce and school. Increased support for this program will allow providers to reach more young people throughout the country who are out of school and face barriers to employment. As WIOA is currently the only law that allocates money specifically to opportunity youth, investing in WIOA is critical for reconnecting opportunity youth.

YouthBuild

• These funds support highly competitive grants to organizations across the country to implement the YouthBuild model. In YouthBuild, opportunity youth reclaim their education, gain job skills, and become leaders in their communities. YouthBuild programming includes coursework for participants to attain their high school diploma or equivalency, mentorship opportunities, and pre-apprenticeship engagement in which young people earn industry-recognized credentials and complete hands-on vocational training.

Reentry Employment Opportunities

• These funds will continue to provide funding towards community-based re-entry programs for justice-involved young adults who are currently or formerly incarcerated. These highly effective programs will continue to help more individuals overcome systemic barriers that formerly incarcerated young people face.

Apprenticeship

• It is important to retain robust funding levels for youth apprenticeship programs.

Job Corps

• An increase in these funds provides free residential career training and educational programs, along with crucial basic needs such as housing, food, and medical care to low-income young adults, giving them the skills they need to secure good-paying jobs and be put on a pathway to a meaningful career.

Department of Education

Adult Basic and Literacy Education State Grants

• An Increase in these funds will provide more young people access to programs geared toward providing education and literacy services and basic skills they need to obtain a high school equivalency credential.

McKinney-Vento Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program

• These funds provide programs with critical assistance for community organizations, school districts, and public agencies around the country that serve children and youth experiencing homelessness. These programs provide young people experiencing homelessness with the extra support they need to enroll in school.

These recommendations will help reconnect the 4.3 million opportunity youth in the United States to high-quality education and training opportunities, bolstering local economies, and strengthening our nation’s workforce. Thank you for considering this request. We appreciate your consideration of our request. Thank you for your leadership and attention to these important matters.

Sincerely,

Children’s Defense Fund

The Corps Network

Jobs For The Future (JFF)

National Collaborative for Transformative Youth Policy (TYP Collaborative)

National Youth Employment Coalition (NYEC)

Opportunity Youth United (OYU)

Young Invincibles

YouthBuild Global