Stable employment helps build a solid foundation for youth as they enter adulthood. Some youth involved in the justice system—especially for serious offenses—may face increased barriers to finding and securing employment. This blogpost features the results from a national scan of workforce programs that identify strategies that may help overcome these challenges. The research identifies common features of quality community-based workforce development programs that serve youth and young adults with criminal or juvenile records. The scan also notes common program offerings, promising practices, and marks of a supportive infrastructure. The information collected helps identify the kinds of organizational structures, partnerships and collaboration that are essential to helping young people with records succeed in the workforce.

This fact sheet targeted primarily for young adults offers information on what it means to take care of oneself as well as hotline telephone numbers and links to information on conversation starters and self-care.

During the holiday season, families are dealing with stress from multiple sources, including navigating how to safely gather given the COVID-19 safety protocols. This National Child Traumatic Stress Network fact sheet offers parents and caregivers a set of strategies and ideas to make the holiday season special. These strategies include starting a family conversation on what has changed and how family members are feeling, finding ways to make connections, making small moments matter, keeping a routine, and noticing good things. The fact sheet also suggests ideas for self-care and notes on how to find available help and support.

The Dibble Institute will host a webinar on December 8, 2021 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET to introduce the Me & My Emotions website. Me & My Emotions supports teens’ social-emotional learning while increasing their resilience. Webinar objectives include supporting participants to understand who Me & My Emotions will benefit and ways to promote it; how the website is organized and what content is covered; and how Me & My Emotions can support teens individually as well as in classrooms and youth organizations.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration has issued a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for the YouthBuild program. The program funds organizations to provide a pre-apprenticeship program model that encompasses education, occupational skills training, leadership development, and high-quality post-program placement opportunities to opportunity youth between the ages of 16 and 24 who left high school prior to graduation and also have other risk factors. The YouthBuild program simultaneously addresses multiple core issues important to youth in low-income communities: affordable housing, leadership development, education, and employment opportunities in in-demand industries and apprenticeship pathways. Applications are due by January 21, 2022.

Jobs for the Future will host a virtual event on November 16, 2021 from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET which will discuss the promise of apprenticeship for in-school and out-of-school youth. Participants will learn how apprenticeship is being advanced at the federal and state level, how states are using those opportunities to create and expand youth apprenticeship programs, and how partnerships help to build and sustain Registered Apprenticeship for young people.

The National Association of Workforce Development Professionals will host a webinar on October 26, 2021 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. CT to take a deeper look into case management for the young adult population. The webinar will offer innovative and hands-on approaches for developing this segment of the emerging workforce. Highlights will include: making beneficial interactions (not just checking off a box); engaging your customers; and developing intentional programming. Webinar presenters are Kim Meadows of the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission and Jon Ryce of Action, Inc. There is a fee for participation.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, Division of Youth Services, will host a webinar on October 6, 2021 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET to showcase success stories of youth work experience providers and lessons learned from implementing their programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Videos covered in the webinar include Early Childhood Resource Center, an Ohio-based child care work experience provider; Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency, which offers summer youth employment; New Hampshire Jobs for America's Graduates (JAG), which connects youth with health care providers; and the Virginia WIOA Youth Summer Program. The webinar will allow participants to interact with Division of Youth Services staff to learn more about work experience requirements.

This podcast highlights the SOAR Program at Tri-County OIC, which is affiliated with the Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania region. SOAR is a reentry program for young adults (ages 18 to 24) who have been involved in the criminal justice system. The comprehensive program offers customized academic training, vocational training, intense case management, and stackable/portable credentials training. Part of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Voice of Experience video series, the podcast is presented by SOAR Project Manager Christina Johnson.

The Urban Institute will host a free webinar on September 20, 2021 from 12:45 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET as part of its Strategies for Supporting Young People Transitioning Out of Foster Care Series. The webinar will review how parents in foster care need services and supports as they navigate to parenthood and adulthood. A panel of child welfare professionals and young parents with lived experience will discuss ways that child welfare systems could meet the needs of this population. Panelists include representatives from Chapin Hall, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Children’s Village, and the Urban Institute.