Bridging the Opportunity Gap
For the past five years DYS has partnered with Commonwealth Corporation (CommCorp) through a joint collaboration referred to as the LEED educational initiative. The LEED initiative is an effort to support and strengthen education and workforce development for youth involved with the DYS continuum of care. CommCorp was a natural partner to assist with the development of this statewide employability initiative since the intent of the funding aligns with CommCorp’s mission to provide a range of quality career pathways for the Commonwealth’s youth and adults
DYS and CommCorp developed a strategic framework to guide the design and implementation of this initiative. Four statewide goals were identified to serve as foundation of the employability initiative and to help guide the distribution of this funding, including:
- Expanding DYS capacity: Improving community connections to enable DYS staff, particularly those serving DYS Community and Neighborhood Reentry Centers to link to community employability resources (such as Career Centers, non-profit and grassroots employability services, social services and education opportunities);
- Three Sector Strategies: Increasing the capacity of DYS regions to identify and create partnerships with a) vocational technical high schools; b) community and faith based organizations; and c) workforce investment boards and career centers – all with the intent of expanding and leveraging existing vocational, employability and education resources to youth in DYS custody;
- Statewide and Regional Approach: Establishing fourteen pilot employability and/or vocational training programs in each of the five DYS regions (Northeast, Metro, Central, Southeast and Western) to serve youth in the community phase of their DYS experience; and
- Improving Client Transitions to the Community: Increasing the number of DYS clients who receive career readiness and employability/vocational training experiences and placements during the Community Reentry Phase.
In addition to the statewide goals, DYS and CommCorp identified three statewide “indicators of success” to strive for by the end of Fiscal Year 2007. These success indicators included:
- Each DYS region hosts a educational and vocational training pilot program that provides career readiness and vocational training opportunities to at least 20 youth in at least one city in each region.
- A minimum of 100 youth currently in the custody of DYS are involved in at least twenty weeks of career readiness and vocational training.
- 15% of the youth in the pilot programs enter a structured internship or workplace experience by the completion of the pilot program.
The Funding Strategy: Regional Employability Pilots and Competitive Grant Process
DYS and CommCorp refer to all of the fourteen pilot programs included in the Fiscal Year 2007 funding belonging to the “Bridging the Opportunity Gap” initiative (also referred to as “the Initiative”). In order to promote a creative mix of pilot projects, two approaches were used to distribute the $900,000 of vocational and employability funding. The first funding approach enabled each of the five regional DYS directors to identify and support vocational and employability efforts connected to their Community Reentry Centers. The other approach was a competitive grant process to encourage the development of workforce connections with workforce investment boards, career centers, community and faith based organizations and public vocational high schools.
Regardless of the source and approach for distributing funding, all fourteen selected pilot sites adhered to the statewide goals and indicators of success for funding. In addition, Commonwealth Corporation developed a set of common program elements, reporting requirements and a strategy for providing technical assistance that was consistently applied across all sites.
Click here for a list of the initiative’s program elements
In FY2007, through the” Bridging the Opportunity Gap” initiative, fourteen pilot programs were awarded funding, resulting in over 250 DYS clients being recruited and engaged in a range of career development and employability activities.
Bridging the Opportunity Gap—Grantees
Click here for the 2007-2008 Bridging the Opportunity Gap Initiative’s grantees
Click here for the 2006-2007 Bridging the Opportunity Gap Initiative’s grantees
Please Click here for the 2006-2007 Bridging the Opportunity Gap: Job Readiness and Employability Initiative Report.
Bridging the Opportunity Gap—Data Collection
Click here to access information about program and participant data collection.
