CareerReady ATL: Providing Real Opportunity for Metro Atlanta Youth

By Michele Jacobs

The lives of too many young people in Metro Atlanta hang in the balance. Over 50,000 16–24-year-olds in our region are out of school and not connected to work which could have lifelong negative impacts on earnings, housing stability, mental health and other factors.

But, there is hope and solutions.

At the United Way of Greater Atlanta, we’re committed to ensuring young adults have the tools to build a bright future. In partnership with Atlanta CareerRise, we envision to build out a Youth Apprenticeship System focused on creating multiple pathways to economic well-being for Black, Hispanic and other youth of color, our CareerReady ATL Initiative is developing the talent pipeline to meet the needs of our diverse industries. And we know these investments are necessary — right now a young person’s zip code is a greater predictor of our children’s future achievements, earnings, and life expectancy than their talent, hard work, or other factors.

Atlanta has a strong and diverse business sector, many post-secondary educational institutions, first-rate nonprofits, and a civil rights legacy that has grown into a movement ─ all of which have elevated our status to one of national recognition of activism and change. And yet, structural inequities born of racism create conditions that all too often entrench youth and young adults in cycles of poverty. Atlanta is ranked number one in economic inequality, a dynamic that fuels enormous economic and human negative repercussions for our city and the ability to realize our young people’s greatest potential.

So, we’re turning the tide and working to become a national model for how best to drive transformational change in addressing the multi-layered issue of youth employment. Our goal is to create 4,000 high-quality Youth Apprenticeship opportunities within the Greater Atlanta region.

First and foremost, here young people are empowered to be the leaders of their own journey. Since 2013, we have been working to align key youth development and youth organizing strategies in collaboration with our community partners to achieve youth-led changes in our metro Atlanta region. There are few youth employment programs that are implemented by multi-sectoral partners. We are building a comprehensive workforce development initiative that will create sustainable career pathways with youth at the center.

Our efforts are intentionally building programs that reach into our schools and create pipelines to good jobs through pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs connected to high demand industries that pay family sustaining wages. We offer coaching and no wrong door approaches. And our initiatives pay our youth living wages because we know many of these young people are heads of household for their families or have other care-giving responsibilities. So far, we have served over 10,000 youth.

And we could do more with greater federal support. We were thrilled to see President Biden’s commitment to young people and now we need to see action on par with the historic investments in infrastructure this week. Federal investments in workforce development, a focus on apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs, and subsidized employment is exactly what our community needs. Additionally, intentional investments in creating the jobs of the future within the green economy offers new and renewed opportunities for us to build even more pipelines to good paying jobs for young people while incubating new business opportunities for our region.

It’s beyond time to invest in education and employment opportunities at scale and we know what works for our young people. Failing to meet this moment with the investments necessary at the scale and for the duration needed will result in far too many young people being locked out of the labor market — which will have lifelong negative impacts for youth, families, employers, and our entire Atlanta community.

This is a pivotal moment for positive impact of the future economic and community well-being in metro-Atlanta through changing the trajectory for youth and young adults. So, they choose the future they want to see for themselves and their community.

Michele Jacobs is the Senior Director of Youth Development at United Way of Greater Atlanta