Our Mission
The Reconnecting Youth Campaign is a coalition championing policies and programs to reconnect Opportunity Youth across the country.
Across the United States, over 4.8 million 16- to 24-year-olds have been separated from pathways to productive adulthood. They are known as “Opportunity Youth,” both because they are seeking opportunities to provide for themselves and their families, and because they represent untapped potential for employers, communities and our economy.
Policy Agenda
The Reconnecting Youth Campaign remains at the forefront of legislative investment victories centering Opportunity Youth.
Since our launch in 2017, our advocacy has focused on working with elected officials to ensure youth and young adults disconnected from education and employment are prioritized in budget decisions, policies and programs. Equitable access to education, employment and service pathways lead to intergenerational economic mobility for youth, young adults, and their families.
The Reconnecting Youth Campaign is a coalition championing policies and programs to reconnect Opportunity Youth across the country.
Co-facilitators
The Reconnecting Youth Campaign is a collaboration of more than 50 national organizations that care about and work on behalf of Opportunity Youth. It is co-facilitated by the following organizations, each of which has a longstanding commitment to young people, opportunity and equity:
Jobs for the Future
Jobs for the Future (JFF) is a national nonprofit that drives transformation of the U.S. education and workforce systems to achieve equitable economic advancement for all. We do this by designing solutions, scaling best practices, influencing policy and action, and investing in innovation.
National Youth Employment Coalition
NYEC is a national membership organization of more than 150 direct-service providers, state and local intermediaries, and workforce agencies across the country who all work to reconnect young people to the education and workforce systems through policy and advocacy, technical assistance, research, and place-based work. Over its 46-year history, NYEC has been a resource for policymakers and stakeholders on the best practices and challenges in the youth workforce space and a driver in advocating for federal policy improvements for young people.
YouthBuild Global
In over 320 YouthBuild programs in 9 countries including over 240 domestically, young people who are out of school and out of work reclaim their education, gain job skills, and become leaders in their communities through service and civic engagement. In YouthBuild’s environment of love, respect, high expectations, belonging, and agency, young people overcome barriers and build long-term professional and personal success.
As headquarters for the YouthBuild movement, YouthBuild Global unifies and partners with this expansive network of YouthBuild programs around the world, championing Opportunity Youth as they achieve their ambitions and reach their full potential.
Forum for Youth Investment
National nonprofit “action- and think-tank” working to ensure young people, ages 5-24, can reach their full potential in education, work, and life. Our work is grounded in strengthening programs through quality, supporting practitioners and system leaders through capacity building, and shaping policies by convening stakeholders within the youth development ecosystem.
Opportunity Youth United
OYUnited is a national movement of young people and allies from all backgrounds committed to creating a society that invests adequately in the education and welfare of its children and youth, supports family and community life, ends mass incarceration and discrimination of all kinds, promotes a robust participatory democracy, and is structured to provide opportunity and responsibility for all. Our vision is a society with opportunity and responsibility, love and respect, education and employment, justice and equality for all. We envision a nation where all young people can reach their highest potential and noblest aspirations in the context of safe, supportive, and healthy communities.
Children’s Defense Fund
The Children’s Defense Fund builds community so young people grow up with dignity, hope, and joy. Our history is rooted in the Civil Rights and Women’s movements, and we’re carrying the fight for equity forward. We work at the intersection of well-being and racial justice for children and youth. We work alongside and amplify the power of youth and families through advocacy, community organizing, direct service, and public policy.
The Corps Network
The Corps Network is the National Association of Service and Conservation
Corps. The Corps Network’s membership of 150+ Service and Conservation Corps across the United States annually provides more than 22,000 young adults and veterans the opportunity to develop job skills while serving our country through projects on public lands and in communities. The Corps Network supports Corps through advocacy, providing access to funding and project opportunities, and by offering expert guidance in Corps operations and programming. Service and Conservation Corps offer Opportunity Youth mentors, structure, and the chance to earn money, go to school, and gain work experience.
Young Invincibles
Young Invincibles was founded by a group of students in the summer of 2009, motivated by the recognition that young people’s voices were not being heard in the debate over health care reform. We believed in our generation’s capacity to stand up and make itself heard, and as our work expanded the opportunity became more apparent. It turned out young people had even more to share. They were eager to organize friends, educate the public about new health insurance options, and develop real solutions to the challenges we face.
National Collaborative for Transformative Youth Policy
The TYP Collaborative brings together policy, advocacy, and activism to drive transformational change by and for young people. Through youth-led policymaking and power-building initiatives, we address a wide range of interconnected issues and pursue multi-level policy change to maximize impact. By centering the experiences and vision of young people, we can achieve a liberated future rooted in abundance, community, and joy.
Join the Reconnecting Youth Campaign
Together we can unleash America’s potential.
