Americas Youth Teenage Unemployment Reduction Network Inc

For nearly 30 years MY TURN has focused on "the forgotten half", the economically, socially and educationally disadvantaged youth in poorer neighborhoods/communities.

At our core, we seek to curb the dropout crisis that plague our second-tier cities through targeted programming.

We work in concert with local partners including schools, employers, community and faith based organizations in a holistic approach to serving youth.    MY TURN serves more than 800 youth annually in seven New England gateway communities with high rates of new immigrants, poverty, dropouts, teen pregnancy, substance abuse, crime, and unemployment.  Our programs are designed to work with youth most likely fail to make a successful transition to adulthood and to break the cycle of dropping out and urban poverty one participant at a time. More than 90% of our participants are below the federal poverty line, and all have additional barriers to future success. 

We offer three programs, meeting students where they are at and tailoring services to their needs.  For youth who have dropped out, we offer our out-of-school youth program helping them achieve their GED’s and obtain employment skills and credentialing.  We provide them with counseling and mentoring and all of them participate in community service and leadership activities.  For youth still in school and not planning on going on to college we offer programming geared towards development of skills, credentials, and professional networks that will allow them to move towards a career ladder job and frequently advanced technical training.  Our youth who are prospective first generation college students are able to take advantage of a program geared specifically towards them, helping them with every aspect of the collect exploration, application, and acceptance process.

 And we are successful. 

A five year study showed our youth are able to achieve their dreams at a far higher rate than their peers.  In fact our program for first generation college students has consistently placed and retained more than 90% of their program graduates in four year schools, compared to a 42% average nationally.

 

MY TURN is now entering our 30th year, and needs funds to help us continue for the next 30.  Program graduates from many years ago are now professionals, business owners and community leaders. They are now pillars of their communities, and our goal is to continue to build the communities we work in, one teen who has been written off at a time.

 Why do we do what we do?

Because the dropout crisis is staggering.

About 42 percent of Hispanic students, 43 percent of African American, and 46 percent of American Indian students will not graduate on time with a regular diploma, compared to 17 percent of Asian students and 22 percent of white students.

Among all races and ethnicities, males graduate at a lower rate than their female peers do—68 percent versus 75 percent.  

Graduation rates are significantly lower in districts with higher percentages of students who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches (a measure of poverty).

High school students of low-income families drop out of high school at six times the rate of their peers from high-income families.

The lowest-achieving 25 percent of students are twenty times more likely to drop out of high school, compared to students in the highest-achievement quartile.

 

75 percent of state prison inmates and 59 percent of federal inmates are high-school dropouts.

High-school dropouts are 3.5 times more likely than graduates to be incarcerated.

Dropouts contribute disproportionately to the unemployment rate. 55 percent of young adult dropouts are employed, compared to 74 percent of high-school graduates and 87 percent of college graduates.

Dropouts contribute to state and federal tax coffers at about one-half the rate of high-school graduates. Over a working lifetime, a dropout will contribute about $60,000 less.

The 23 million high-school dropouts aged 18-67 will contribute roughly $50 billion less annually in state and federal taxes.

Studies suggest the United States would save $41.8 billion in health care costs if the 600,000 young people who dropped out in 2004 were to complete one additional year of education.

If 33 percent of dropouts graduated from high school, the federal government would save $10.8 billion each year in food stamps, housing assistance, and temporary assistance for needy families.