Our Story
Newark Opportunity Youth Network (NOYN) began its work in 2016 after nearly a decade of work as YouthBuild Newark, an affiliate of YouthBuild USA, to provide young people ages 16-to-24 years old with an opportunity to earn a GED while gaining on-the-job training through community building projects.
Robert Clark, founder and executive director, made history as the first YouthBuild graduate to found a YouthBuild program in a major city, and his visionary leadership led to years of successful community building throughout New Jersey as well as collaborations with local and national community-based organizations (CBOs).
Through this work, Clark and other Newark leaders recognized how coordinated efforts across the city had the potential to achieve more for opportunity youth than any one organization alone. In 2014, Rutgers University hosted an inaugural forum for the city’s leaders to examine—for the first time—data on all the challenges that these young people face—and the implications for the city’s economy. This helped create the necessary conditions to formalize budding partnerships emerging from YouthBuild Newark’s work.
In 2016, NOYN was established and began to develop a body of evidence-based initiatives designed to re-engage opportunity youth while drastically changing systems that inhibit their success.
2002 | YouthBuild Newark (YBN) begins helping disconnected young people ages 16 to 24 earn GEDs and on-the-job experiences
2002 | Robert Clark, founder and executive director, leads YouthBuild Newark as it hones its unique model.
2008-2012 | YouthBuild expands to communities across Essex County and expands its intermediary programs
2011 | YBN partners with Newark Public Schools to redesigns the district’s alternative education program and alternative school.
2014 | Rutgers University and NPS co-sponsor the GradNation Summit to discuss enhancing the city’s response to disconnected youth.
2016 | Newark Opportunity Youth Network (NOYN) is established to develop a body of initiatives to address youth disconnection.
2016 | NOYN plays a role in Newark Public Schools’ board-approved revision of the district’s discipline policy.
2016 | NOYN continues its work with the Restorative Center, and merges two district transfer schools into one campus - UPLIFT Academy
2017 | NOYN opens LEAD Charter School, the state’s first - and only - alternative charter school for opportunity youth with 129 students.
2019 | The Aspen Institute’s Opportunity Youth Forum (OYF) names Newark to join its collaborative.
2019 | My Brother's Keeper Newark is embedded within NOYN to lead the network’s policy and advocacy work.
2020 | NOYN becomes the backbone of the Newark Youth Workforce Collaborative.
Our Approach
Newark Opportunity Youth Network launched in 2016 with a multi-pronged approach to improving outcomes for opportunity youth in our community - and across New Jersey. To execute this mission, our network is comprised of four key elements: Education, Workforce Development, Policy Advocacy, and Systems Building. Every city and region is unique, but when this approach is localized to a particular community's needs, only then, can large-scale, sustainable impact for opportunity youth become possible.
EDUCATION:
LEAD Charter School
New Jersey currently spends $16,000 (2020-21) in per pupil funding to LEAD Charter School’s compared to the $289,287 (2019) spent per young person in state youth prison.
LEAD’s recidivism rate is 12.2%, compared to the state’s most recently reported rate of 52.4% (2016)
Workforce Development:
YouthBuild Newark
53% of New Jersey’s open employment are middle-skills jobs, but only 37% of New Jersey’s workforce is trained or educated for those jobs
Policy Advocacy:
My Brother’s Keeper Newark
Researchers at Northeastern University discovered a link between adult incarceration rates and high school disconnect. According to the 2009 study, 1 in every 10 young male high school dropouts ends up in jail or juvenile detention. And for African American males - the statistic is 1 in 4
Systems Building:
Newark Youth Workforce Collaborative
More than 100,000 “opportunity youth” have fallen through the cracks in New Jersey, yet NOYN can only serve a fraction of this community. It takes the collective work of multiple agencies to build pathways to support the professional success of opportunity youth
Our Network
LEAD Charter School
LEAD Charter School is the first alternative public charter high school specifically designed to serve opportunity youth — young people 16-21 years old who are not participating in school or the workforce — in Newark, New Jersey
YouthBuild Newark
YouthBuild is a comprehensive youth and community development program which addresses core issues facing low-income communities: education, housing, employment, crime prevention, and leadership development. For more than 30 years, YouthBuild sites across the country have been serving young people through a unique approach that combines academics with industry-recognized credentials. In Newark, the YouthBuild model is communicated through LEAD Charter School.
My Brother’s Keeper Newark
My Brother’s Keeper Newark (MBKN) was established in 2014 when Newark Mayor Ras Baraka’s office accepted the Call to Action from the national My Brother’s Keeper Alliance. Over the last five years, MBKN has been led by three guiding principles: mentoring, violence reduction and second chances; and connecting young boys and men with living wage jobs. In 2019, MBKN was embedded within NOYN to lead the network’s policy and systems change work; to close opportunity gaps for boys and men of color; to build systems of support; and to create new pathways for continuing education, job training and employment.
Newark Youth Workforce Collaborative
The Newark Youth Workforce Collaborative serves as the table where impactful players in youth workforce development gather. As its backbone, NOYN is working to establish a clear school-to-workplace pipeline for Newark’s young people through capacity building with local Community-Based Organizations (CBOs).
Using what it has learned from decades of experience with the YouthBuild model, NOYN serves as an intermediary to advance a system of quality workforce development programming throughout the city.
