Designing Quality Programs that Promote Hope, Purpose and Future Readiness Among High Need, High Risk Youth: Recommendations for Shifting Perspective and Practice

Abstract

This paper uses a social justice perspective to recommend a number of program design strategies for improving high need, high opportunity youth access to quality education, career and workforce development. Globally, high need, high opportunity youth refer to the estimated 500 million youth who live on less than $2 per day, the estimated 600 million youth who are not in school, not employed, and not in training (i.e., NEET or Opportunity Youth). The recommendations are framed using a number of U.N. Sustainable Development Goals with the central aim being to increase access to decent work.

College and Career Ready and Critically Conscious: Asset-Building With Latinx Immigrant Youth

“…In so doing, we hope to prompt the development and testing of interventions that combine CCR and CC, not only with Latinx immigrant youth, but with other populations as well. Such an endeavor is consistent with Solberg et al's (2020) call for programs that "empower(ing) youth by helping them become critically conscious of the inequities in resources from macrosystemic, mesosystemic, and microsystemic levels that contribute to unequal access to range and quality of learning and workforce development opportunities" (p. 14). 2020).…”

“…The exemplarian action research model is one mechanism for promoting wide-scale change toward equitable opportunities for underserved and minoritized student groups. Solberg et al (2020) describe exemplarian action research as an effort among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to reach a collective understanding of an issue faced by a marginalized group, and to create and implement new practices that generate system level changes toward equity. The integration of CCR with CC within career education curricula could be the basis for exemplarian action research.…”

The importance of social emotional learning skills in assisting youth to successfully transition into the professional world

“…Ultimately, this leads to whole-child development and an increased impact on a broader society that can be described as thriving, community harmony and the future readiness (Solberg, Park, & Marsay, 2020) amongst African youth.…”

Embedding Life Design in Future Readiness Efforts to Promote Collective Impact and Economically Sustainable Communities: Conceptual Frameworks and Case Example

“…As a scope and sequence of activities, ILPs involve classroom/small group activities that develop (a) self-exploration skills that enable youth to identify their talent and skills, (b) career exploration skills enable youth to become aware of how their talent and transferable skills align to high demand occupations, and (c) career management skills that enable youth to identify learning opportunities and postsecondary pathways including access to workbased learning and early college participation that support youth in successfully pursuing their future life goals [13][14][15]. Research indicates that ILPs show promise in helping students become proactive, resilient, and adaptable, what we refer to as "future ready" [16][17][18][19]. More specifically, ILPs have shown tremendous promise in motivating youth to select more rigorous course schedules, establish post-secondary goals, and facilitate more substantial connections with family, teachers, and peers [20].…”

“…High need, high opportunity youth: This collaboration was derived, in part, from efforts by the BU Center for Future Readiness to design, implement and evaluate career-oriented services that support high need, high opportunity youth populations [19]. Globally, "high need, high opportunity" youth refer to those aged 15-24 who make less than $2 (USD) per day [21] (est.…”