NOYN launches Newark’s first school-to-workforce pipeline for young people
Newark, New Jersey -- Newark Opportunity Youth Network (NOYN) has partnered with Schools That Can, Newark Alliance, and Newark Youth One Stop to launch Newark’s first collective approach to creating a school-to-workforce pipeline for the city’s youth.
Born out of a planning grant from the Aspen Institute’s Opportunity Youth Forum, the Newark Youth Workforce Collaborative brings together leaders in education and workforce development, as well as local employment partners, to create an ecosystem that collectively shares data, creates pathways for career exploration, expands internships and apprenticeships, advocates for policy changes, and addresses wraparound supports for youth as they transition into the workforce.
“By creating a collaborative city-wide strategy, organizations serving both opportunity youth and in-school youth can pool their resources to create more pathways toward success for young people across the city,” said Robert Clark, Chief Executive Officer of NOYN.
While strengthening post-secondary pathways has long been a focus of NOYN’s systems building work with partners, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have heightened its importance. Through data sharing systems, members of the Collaborative will monitor the effectiveness of their collective efforts to increase the percentage of youth with a high school diploma, increase the percentage of young people with early workforce experience, and improve re-engagement with young people disconnected from school or steady employment.
The Newark Youth Workforce Collaborative
The center of the Collaborative is the Working Groups, a cluster of Program Partners - or direct service agencies - who develop action plans to achieve the goals and priorities of the Collaborative. The Advisory Committee consists of cross-sector system leaders who help steward and champion the overall vision for the effort. And as the backbone of the Collaborative, NOYN will turnkey funding opportunities, capacity building, and technical assistance to members of the Collaborative.
The first capacity building series, led by national partner Jobs For the Future (JFF), will help organizations build pathways toward demand-driven training that leads to skilled employment and advancement potential for opportunity youth in Newark.
La Casa de Don Pedro and Urban League of Essex County are among the nine founding community-based organizations (CBOs) in the Collaborative. Wendy Melendez, Program Division Director at La Casa de Don Pedro, said community collaboration is Newark’s strength.
“I think it’s important that we work together. I think it’s been very effective being a partner with NOYN, and because of that, we’ve developed our own strengths as an organization. I think our programs are more effective now,” she said.
“That’s the beauty of all this. We get so caught up working in our own little world that we don’t take the time to identify the strengths and the weaknesses of other organizations. I think through this partnership, we’re able to develop that and see how we can help each other.”
Patricia Sermon, Chief Operations Officer at the Urban League of Essex County said, “I’m hoping that through this stronger collaboration, that we’re constantly sharing the client and making sure we’re all looking at a person as an individual, helping them along their career path.”
“Young people want the resources we’re offering,” Clark said. “They are seeking connection and careers for themselves and their families. When we all come together like this, it proves that.”
NOYN is currently accepting applications from organizations interested in joining the Collaborative. For more information, visit www.newark-oyn.org.
A full list of members of the Newark Youth Workforce Collaborative is included below:
Newark Opportunity Youth Network
Schools That Can
Newark Youth One Stop
Newark Alliance
La Casa de Don Pedro
Leaders for Life, Inc.
United Community Corporation
Urban League of Essex
Essex County College Training, Inc.