Shift Happens: The Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund Accelerates Systems Change

Monique Miles and Yelena Nemoy

Opportunity youth collaboratives from around the country have been removing barriers and improving systems to serve young adults.

In many ways, systems are constructed to resist change – so what do we do when those systems aren’t serving in equitable ways? What approaches are effective at making positive change happen – and quickly? Our report, Shift Happens: The Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund Accelerates Systems Change, looks at the ways in which opportunity youth collaboratives from around the country have been removing barriers and improving systems to serve young adults and help them succeed. The Forum for Community Solutions’ Opportunity Youth Forum (formerly the Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund) works with cross-sector, cross-system collaborative initiatives across the U.S. that are focused on building and deepening the education and employment opportunities for opportunity youth, who are 16- to 24-year-olds who are out of work and school. These initiatives achieve success by focusing on: 1) Building a collaborative infrastructure 2) Building diverse stakeholder commitment 3) Implementing and sustaining collective action among stakeholders. Click here to read the Executive Summary. Click here to read the entire report.