About Texas Opportunity Youth Network

Texas is a tale of two states.  With a population of over 30 million people, Texas is the 9th largest economy in the world. Over the last decade, we have experienced unprecedented growth and economic prosperity. In addition to energy, we’ve become a high-tech hub, space leader, and medical fields powerhouse, and are responsible for one quarter of all US exports.

Many in the state from our most rural communities to our largest cities struggle to access this extraordinary economic opportunity. Over half of Texas students in our schools are “at-risk” of dropping out, and just 10% of the 2013 low-income 8th graders completed any postsecondary credential within 6 years of high school graduation, resulting in much steeper challenges in earning a family-sustaining wage.

“I left school to help my family pay the bills, but I found that most jobs that I liked or paid good require college or training. If I want to earn and be successful, I need to go back to school.” – Ramos from El Paso 

One in ten of our nation’s opportunity youth and young adults, an estimated 500,000, is Texan.  Creating a comprehensive state strategy to re-engage this population could return to Texas as much as $7 billion annually in increased earnings alone. 

Texas Opportunity Youth Data can be found here.  A website developed by the Ray Marshall Center at The University of Texas at Austin,

In 2021, the Aspen Institute’s Forum for Community Solutions and Opportunity Youth Forum launched the Texas Opportunity Youth Network (TOYN), a statewide initiative dedicated to building the expertise and capacity for communities across the state to re-engage and support their opportunity youth as these young adults seek to achieve their education, career and community leadership goals. About 350,000 of the state’s opportunity youth live in communities that are part of TOYN.

“When I had my baby, it got really hard to go to school. I felt like I had to choose between my baby’s future and my own and it was no contest.” – Lydia from Houston

The network’s goal is to increase the number of opportunity youth who are re-engaged and to transform state systems so that the experience of disconnection is rare, brief and non-recurring.  We do so through three primary strategies:

  • Statewide adoption of best practices that both prevent disconnection and re-engage youth and young adults at scale.
    • Our statewide work called the Innovation Fund has led to over 5,000 youth and young adults reconnecting to services, education and work in the first 18 months of the initiative. 
  • Raising awareness and narrative change in how we talk about youth and young adults, the challenges they face, and the promise they hold for our state’s future
    • Regional summits have raised awareness and built coalitions across the state in Amarillo, Dallas/Ft. Worth, El Paso, Houston and Waco. 
  • Advocacy and systems change at both the local and state level by integrating what we hear from our young adults, what we learn from our practitioners, and what the data show leads to results. 
    • Opportunity Youth are identified as a priority population in the Texas Workforce Investment Council’s 2024 Economic Strategic Plan.
    • TOYN’s resource advocacy has helped to garner over $8 million to opportunity youth providers and backbones throughout the state. 
    • Stay tuned for our 2027 Advocacy and Systems Recommendations

“I wanted to stay close to my family and hometown, but there isn’t a whole lot out here if you’re not in energy or ag,  and it’s 70 miles to college.” – Anthony from Snyder

TOYN’s work takes place across three constituencies:

• Texas Emerging Leaders Board – led by TNOYS, this board consists of young leaders from across the state who advise programs, guide community solutions and advocate for strong and supportive youth policy.

• TOYN Leadership Council – includes regional, state and national philanthropy, thought partners and state agencies designed to increase resources to this population, identify system barriers and support transformation to help ensure access to opportunities leading to success across all demographics and lived experiences.

• TOYN Community of Practice – consists of organizations across Texas engaging in peer learning, capacity and expertise building to increase their effectiveness in implementing OY programming and pathways and lift up systems barriers that merit deeper exploration and transformation.

We are grateful for our funding, thought and agency partners:

Education Service Center 1

Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute

Permian Strategic Partnership