The Aspen Forum for Community Solutions has announced that the San Diego Youth Development Office (YDO) will receive one of 21 Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund (OYIF) grants awarded to communities across the United States.
The recipients of the grants will harness the power of cross-sector collaboration to make substantive progress for Opportunity Youth (OY), defined as Americans ages 16-24 who are disconnected from education, training and employment. YDO will launch an initiative to support these youth.
In San Diego, the initial OYIF Grant has already been leveraged, bringing $200,000 dollars to the region, thanks to matching funds from the California Endowment and the San Diego Workforce Partnership. YDO will implement a collective impact process by engaging a collaborative of city and county government agencies, local nonprofits, philanthropy, and the business community to improve education, training and employment outcomes for OY.
Collaborative partners include: City of San Diego Office of the Mayor, San Diego County Board of Supervisors, City of San Diego Council District Offices, City of San Diego Commission on Gang Prevention and Intervention, San Diego County Child Welfare and Probation Departments, San Diego Workforce Partnership, San Diego Unified School District, San Diego Community College District, San Diego Organizing Project, San Diego Youth Development Office, The California Endowment, and Harder+Company Community Research.
“I’m excited to see groups in our City come together to help our young people! It’s our responsibility to encourage and help those who will follow in our footsteps. This is a great foundation for good work ahead!” said Mayor Bob Filner.
Supervisor Greg Cox, who is Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, Chairman of the San Diego Workforce Partnership Policy Board and a major partner, commented, “This grant will help the city and county governments and our partners design a comprehensive plan to help our at-risk youth and connect them to jobs and the services they need.”
During the first year, the collaborative will share and collect data. to identify OY in San Diego, their location, and the policies, resources, and services that exist to support them. Once the data is gathered and analyzed, the collaborative will identify resources and create a comprehensive plan to connect OY to new and existing services. This comprehensive plan will set the stage for the implementation phase of the initiative in 2014.