The Pathways to Careers Fund: 3 Briefs

Adria Steinberg

This report shares lessons from CBO-employer partnerships for opportunity youth in five cities.

In 2017, the Forum for Community Solutions launched the

Pathways to Careers Fund

to support and learn from effective

partnerships

between community-based organizations (CBOs) and employers

focused on opportunity youth, and explore the potential for scaling such

collaborations. This

new report

documents

lessons from these projects in

five cities:

Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Phoenix, and Seattle.

The report

, written before the COVID-19 pandemic, is comprised of three complementary briefs:

  • Emergent Learningsdescribes the history of the Fund and focuses on three key themes: moving from quick job attachment to career pathways, the power of small pilots and the contribution of multisector collaboratives.
  • A Citywide ApproachdetailshowfourCBOs supportedbytheFund in Chicago,worked together with Thrive Chicago to improve program quality and amplify impact.
  • More Than A Jobexplores what it takes to for young people with complex barriers to thrive in career track employment, including continuous wrap-around support, work-based learning, flexibly timed on-ramps, and CBO relationships with employers that go beyond a transactional approach to true co-investment.

Read the full report

.