Engaging “Disconnected” Young Adults

- [Anita] Coming up on "ncIMPACT."

Young adults who are not connected to school or work may experience long-lasting adverse effects all throughout their lives.

We'll find out how communities are helping turn opportunities into careers.

- [Narrator] "ncIMPACT" is a PBS North Carolina production in association with the University of North Carolina School of Government.

Funding for "ncIMPACT" is made possible by.

- [Narrator] Changing the course of people's lives.

That's the impact UNC Health and the UNC School of Medicine work to deliver every day.

Our 40,000 team members across the state of North Carolina are committed to caring for you, our patients, and communities, as well as educating the next generation of healthcare professionals.

Individually, we can do a little, but collectively we can do a lot to create impact.

- Welcome to "ncIMPACT."

I'm Anita Brown-Graham.

Disconnected youth, sometimes referred to as opportunity youth, are defined as individuals ages 16 to 24 who are neither in school nor working.

Being disconnected from both school and the workforce can be damaging to young people's future health and their economic outcomes.

But "ncIMPACT's" Sloane Heffernan introduces us to two North Carolina women who beat the odds.

- It may be difficult to picture yourself in these women's shoes.

Their stories are difficult to listen to.

Here's how they are now using their struggles to help and inspire others.

Looking at Hope Anderson today, it is hard to imagine her troubled past.

- I've been told that I don't look like what I've gone through.

- [Sloane] On the surface, you don't see the internal scars from childhood.

Anderson says her mother, who was raised in an orphanage, struggled with parenting and mental illness.

- There is physical abuse, emotional abuse, just extreme isolation from society.

- [Sloane] At 10 years old with basically just these shoes on her feet, Anderson says her father took her and her sister away to escape the abuse.

Two years later, she says her father suffered a massive heart attack and died.

- Completely alone in the world is where it left me.

- [Sloane] Anderson says she lived with six different families from the time she was 12 until she graduated high school.

- It was pretty bad.

I felt like I became very hard, like very hardened in my heart, and my whole person became very like, self-protective.

- [Sloane] Katrina Anderson is not related to Hope Anderson, but also suffered childhood trauma.

- I'm a true believer that everything happens for a reason, and I think it's just kind of made me who I am.

- [Sloane] Katrina Anderson says she and her siblings were in and out of foster care until she was permanently removed from her home in 2004.

She was just 11 years old.

- The last straw was my biological grandfather sexually assaulted me and my sister, and the police came, did an investigation, and then finally took us away.

And that was the last time I actually was with my biological mom.

Do you have like any goals that you would like to reach, like for advanced- - Both women have worked to overcome trauma.

They say helping others has been part of the healing process.

Katrina works as a money coach.

- I really just want to help and inspire people that have had a story or went through something hard that, you know, you can come out on the other side, like, that your past doesn't define you.

- But one of them doesn't have any- - [Sloane] Hope Anderson and her husband work to provide affordable hosting to those in need.

She also serves on the board for Hope + Vine, an organization that supports youth who have aged out of foster care.

She credits faith for turning her life around.

- And what kind of rose to the surface was, how do I love Will?

How do I receive love?

How can I love others?

And this whole process began.

And so it's, like, that's kind of when I feel like I came alive for the first time and kind of that shell broke off, that hard shell that I had put around myself from all the trauma.

- Trauma that no longer defines who she is anymore.

Here's another startling statistic: More than half of the youth entering foster care will age out of the system alone, without a permanent plan in place.

- Thank you, Sloane.

Joining me now is JB Buxton.

JB is the president of Durham Technical Community College.

JB, we know that young people aging out of foster care are disproportionately likely to be disconnected youth, but tell us about some of the other driving causes, challenges that leaves young people disconnected from school and work.

- Anita, I wanna focus on what both these women talked about, which is that sense of isolation, and that sense of that their past might define their future.

And I would say that we find many students who come to us at Durham Tech have experienced not just disconnection from education and employment, but disconnection from caring adults who are helping guide them and navigate their path forward.

- So I know that you are working really hard to reengage many of these young people, but maybe we should pause for a moment and just have you help us understand, what are the stakes if you're not successful?

- Well, let's start with first the stakes for the individual.

I mean, we're talking about people having an opportunity to create a life of opportunity and impact, an opportunity to have economic security for themselves and their families and all the issues that come with a lack of employment and education in terms of healthcare outcomes, and the kind of things that give them, again, a chance for opportunity in whatever endeavor they want to try to achieve as they move forward.

So the lack of not just, again, a credential, but the lack of those networks, the lack of that social capital, and that lack of sense of connection really impairs any future that many of these individuals feel that they have.

- And so then let's talk a little bit about the impacts for communities at large.

- Well, I'll tell you, at Durham Tech, like our 57 community college peers across the state, we feel like we're purpose built for these individuals.

We not only offer an opportunity that's accessible from an educational standpoint, but creates many different pathways to our institution and wraps support around individuals who need that sense of connectivity, need that sense of belonging, need that sense that there are caring adults in their lives who are trying to get them, whether that's to a university that might be their dream, or to a job and a career where they can find real economic mobility and opportunity to take care of their families.

- JB, we're gonna come back and talk about some specific programs that you have at Durham Tech.

Young adults who are living in our rural communities often face a unique set of challenges, but a collaboration that spans Columbus, Bladen, and Brunswick Counties is empowering the next generation.

"ncIMPACT's" David Hurst joins us with more.

- Anita, the Youth Ambassadors for a Better Community program is giving valuable life and leadership skills to middle and high schoolers in the three-county area.

It's also giving them ownership to tackle some of the challenges in their communities.

Growing up in a rural community, D'Ante Grover says many of his peers get disconnected from school or work as they transition to adulthood.

It's why he's always been intentional about continuing his education.

And it's why he jumped at the opportunity to participate in the Youth Ambassadors for a Better Community program.

- My mom saw it in the newspaper, and she sent it to me on my messages.

She was like, "Hey, this is a good opportunity for you since you're about to go to college, you're 18.

You can go ahead and get some work experience so you can be ready and independent for the world."

- Those are ripe.

- These are the ones that's really ripe.

- Good, good, good.

- [David] The program is run by the Columbus-County-based nonprofit Men and Women United for Youth and Families.

This year's cohort includes about 30 middle and high school students.

Their main focus is farming and improving food access in the community.

- We do this in the tri-county area so we can provide food and kind of increase the sustainability of our community.

- Six.

- Hello.

- [David] The program partners with local farmers, and the middle and high schoolers play a role in collecting and distributing food to local restaurants.

- What we feel like we've created is a hub of resources in which everybody can contribute, starting with our youth, through the families and folks who are leaders in the community.

So it's an opportunity for us to, our organization, to engage the community in problem solving, coming up with the solutions to our basic needs.

- [David] Along with the life and leadership skills that are taught with farming, the youth also get paid an hourly wage for their work.

- They can get paid four hours a day.

Some of them may come after the school to the garden and water the raised beds.

And they have a time sheet.

They can write down the time they spent doing that.

[gardeners chattering] - [David] Community partners say the impact of this program is evident, as it gives youth a purpose and opens their eyes to opportunities in their community and beyond.

- And the number of the kids from the program that have graduated and gone on to college is just really incredible, particularly from these rural areas where we are from.

- [David] For D'Ante Grover, his exposure to agriculture has sparked a potential career interest.

- I was only thinking about engineering, then it became mechanical engineering.

Then starting this program, it's like, well, I'm working a lot with foods.

I'm learning a lot.

I'm with farmers all the time.

So basically, why don't I just go ahead and get into agriculture engineering since I already have some experience?

- [David] After Grover graduates from high school, he plans to go on to NC State or NC A&T.

He says it's an ambition fueled by this program.

- Okay, I got it.

- Bladen and Columbus Counties are represented in one of the 13 community collaboratives selected for the Our State, Our Work initiative.

These communities have partnered with UNC Chapel Hill to implement strategies and pilot practices to connect opportunity youth to living-wage employment or educational opportunities.

- Thank you so much, David.

Joining me now is Karen Howard.

Karen is the chair of the Chatham County Board of Commissioners.

Karen, I loved that last story because it gives us an opportunity to see how peers can help to influence others.

So one can well imagine young people who have been disconnected working with this young man and going, "If you're on your way to NC State or A&T, I'm coming with you."

Talk to us a little bit about youth disconnection and how it impacts the social and economic fabric of a community.

- Oh, you know, I think it's important to remember that youth don't suddenly become disconnected at 16 or 18.

That there is a path that often impacts families and leads to that sense of disconnection.

And so when you think about the way that our communities are so interdependent, that what a teacher says to a child, what a child is hearing about their potential in their community in general, about the opportunities that are available to children like them from early on, you know, very early on, that really, to me, lays the groundwork for what a child believes they're capable of being.

And when you have a community that believes that every child has value, I think you begin to see investment in children that speaks to that.

And vice versa, when you have a community that has become somewhat entrenched in the notion that everyone has to go to a four-year college or a career looks a certain way, you limit children, and you start cutting off kids really early in that process.

And I think you end up with a community that just is not as diverse and dynamic as it could be.

- So this is a conversation that's happening in every corner of North Carolina.

You are on the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners' Pathways Initiatives.

Talk about that task force.

What were some of the findings as it relates to how communities can reduce the rate of disconnected youth?

- So one of the things we realized early on as we began doing the research was that children were falling out of the system fairly early and in a multitude of different ways.

We brought in different superintendents.

We brought in students from college schools that had early colleges.

We brought in teachers.

And we heard that there were many paths for a child to fall out of a door, a window, you know, a hallway in the school setting.

And so a lot of our work and our focus was around, how do we empower all of the people that are touching the lives of children, those are in social services, our early childhood centers, our kindergartners, our middle schools, our teachers in our high schools, to identify those factors early, identify the children that are struggling, and find other ways of bringing them back in, connecting with them, giving them some hope of a possible path forward?

- Thank you, Karen.

Stick with us for a moment.

Many students hate the question, what do you wanna do with the rest of your life?

But a program in Person County aims to help students answer just that question.

"ncIMPACT's" Evan Howell visits Roxboro to learn more.

- It did, it did, it did.

- [Evan] Like most high school graduates, Priscilla Holloway couldn't figure out what major she wanted to look at when it came to thinking about college.

- It switched many times.

At first, I wanted to be an anesthesiologist.

- [Evan] But gradually technology sparked her interest, and she got a college internship with Polywood, a furniture manufacturer in Person County.

- Being that this was my first job, it was sort of overwhelming.

Somewhat.

But then once I got used to it, it was like, this flowed.

- [Evan] Polywood is part of the 6-14 Workforce Pipeline, a collaborative effort by Person County schools, Piedmont Community College, and the Person County Economic Development Commission.

Its goal is to guide students to future jobs and college enrollment through what they call pathways, including agriculture and business, technology, and health sciences.

- We solicit the community's support, their feedback, our students' desires, and demand in the community, our workforce, you know, looking at commerce and labor markets.

So we use all of those things.

- [Evan] And on the one side of the pipeline sits Pamela Senegal, president of Piedmont Community College.

She says once she began working with the school district and county, a primary goal was to create a workforce training program that made sense.

- And at the community college, we had over 100 degrees, diplomas, and certificates that sort of looked like a cheesecake factory menu, and they weren't aligned.

And so by making this alignment, we're being very deliberate and very purposeful with every resource that we have.

- [Evan] And partners like Polywood say that alignment with the college is critical to business.

They've already hired students out of the program, some of whom are still employed there today.

- Our goal is to hopefully keep them here long term so they can help to train and encourage others to come into these programs at PCC and get the skills that they need to really progress with the company.

- [Evan] So for students at the entrance to this pipeline, the future becomes a bit less confusing and a bit brighter.

- Like, if the medical field, if you were gonna do the health and science class, if you didn't think you wanted to do it, I would say try anyways because you never know if you're gonna like it or not.

'Cause I mean, it could be your future job.

- [Evan] For now, Priscilla Holloway wants to finish college and pursue her chosen career in technology.

And she has a good idea where she wants to start.

- Love working with the people.

I've created great friendships over the few months that I was here.

- [Evan] Officials say there are plans to expand and strengthen the 6-14 Workforce Pipeline with continued rotations and offerings, helping even more students get connected with a better future.

For "ncIMPACT," I'm Evan Howell.

- Thank you so much, Evan.

Let's bring back our experts.

And joining us for our "ncIMPACT" round table, it's Annie Izod.

Annie is the executive director of the North Carolina Works Commission.

Annie, let's start with that.

What is the North Carolina Works Commission, and how are you engaged in this question of disconnected youth?

- Well, thank you for inviting me to join you today.

The NC Works Commission is our state workforce development board.

And we're made up of 37 governor-appointed members that represent all areas of business and workforce and education partners across the state.

And I think there are many ways that we support the workforce system in general, but one thing that we do support is the work of our local workforce development boards.

And they do a lot of work on the ground with NC Works at NextGen Youth programs.

And we really do focus on how they can meet the youth where they are, in the communities, at job fairs, and even social media.

And we also have a committee on skills and education and attainment, and they really focus on how we can better serve our youth.

- We've highlighted some strategies and programs that seem to be working in North Carolina.

Share others with us, if you might.

- So there are a lot of programs, like NCWorks, NextGen Youth, but we also encourage local areas to apply for grants.

And we did give three grants to local area workforce development boards focused on pre-apprenticeships for youth, and one of them in the capital area, focused on pre-apprenticeship, youth apprenticeships for electrical-type careers, and really gave an opportunity for youth to see what it's like.

And we also have given grants in Centralina and the Northeastern North Carolina, those focusing on let's reach those rural youth, find out what kind of technology we need to connect them, and really get some career awareness and work-based learning opportunities.

- Thank you so much.

JB, let me turn to you now.

We've heard a lot about getting young people in middle school and high school before they disconnect from education, but I wonder if you could talk to us about the special role community colleges play in connecting young adults to opportunity and economic mobility.

- Absolutely.

And I think the point about middle and high school is important, but we deal with people who come back to us at all ages.

And that young adult, 18 to 24, is probably our biggest cohort in both our degree programs and our continuing education programs.

Let me give you one example.

We are working with Made in Durham and the Durham County Commissioners and Durham City Council and life science companies on something called the BULLS Academy where we are bringing 18- to 24-year-olds disconnected from education and employment into our BioWork short-term workforce credential training program.

Thanks to the county, we're providing them $10,000 stipends to cover living expenses, because for a lot of people, a $300 short-term training course is just too much of a bridge to cross, and they've gotta take care of families or contribute to family income.

So we're taking care of those life expenses so these young people can focus, or young adults, can focus on their education, get finished, and then move directly into the biomanufacturing industry with the likes of Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, Mar, KBI Biopharma, great jobs in companies that are working on lifesaving, life-changing medicines.

- So the BULLS Initiative is an excellent example of a true cross-sector collaboration.

Tell us what role the employers have played in that initiative.

- So the most important role is they've defined exactly what it is that individuals need to move into their industry.

So we're not guessing.

We're not trying to think about what kind of skills and credentials.

Employers tell us exactly what they need, and then they participate in guaranteed interviews.

They come into these programs early with people who are working for them, who look like the individuals in our program, so that these young 18- to 24-year-olds can see themselves in this sector.

- I love it.

Karen, this work is personal to me as I serve as lead coordinator of 13 teams representing 37 counties working to reengage 6,000 opportunity youth by 2025.

So I want you to pick up where JB left off.

How important is collaboration in this kind of work?

- It's critical.

You know, it's very personal to me as well.

I'm a mother of six, and four of my kids followed a very traditional path, and the last two required additional supports and additional encouragement to make that leap.

And so the work that is being done to ensure that young people can see the potential before they leave, before we lose connection with them, has been critically important.

But hearing from industries and connecting with industry and understanding what those credentials and certifications need to look like early enough that we start offering these kids the courses in high school, either in dual enrollment, in early college, while we have them, and showing them that the industries are really invested in having them and people like them come into the spaces, has been critical.

We have two huge manufacturing sites coming to Chatham.

And a lot of that early work is happening so that we can reengage and connect with young people who would otherwise become these disconnected youth.

And these industries are helping us do that.

- Thank you so much.

Annie, how can community leaders educate themselves about what opportunity youth may need in order to successfully reengage?

- Well, I do believe that, right now, our workforce system can be difficult to navigate.

And I do think that we need to do better in engaging our youth in social media and teaching them career awareness and really encouraging employers to offer that work-based learning.

And even as early as middle school and high school, I believe that the earlier you find out your passions, the more connected you're gonna be to that.

And really offering those non-degree credentials.

We've talked about credentials here in this conversation.

Really critical for youth to be able to attain those early and stay on a career path.

- So we've talked about the workforce development system.

We've talked about our educational institutions, particularly community colleges.

We've talked about the role of employers.

Let's talk a little bit about the role of non-profit organizations.

Many of these young people, if they're showing up to your campus, JB, they're showing up with food insecurity issues, housing insecurity issues.

What kind of wraparound services will some of these young people need in order to be successful, even in a short-term credential?

- Sure.

And let me just say, your point about nonprofits, they're part of that support ecosystem as well on the front end.

A lot of nonprofits who recognize that we can be a pathway for a lot of their constituents and clients.

And we work in partnership to make sure we create that pathway for the individuals they bring to us.

But then on the supportive services side, as we look at the challenges we have with our population with food security, housing insecurity, childcare, these are areas where we rely on partnership networks with nonprofits in our community to help us provide some of those supportive services, childcare maybe the most important, not just for our students, but for our faculty and staff.

But in each of those areas, it's not very hard for life to interrupt someone's education.

They press pause, and they never come back.

And if we can help them navigate through, again, it's some of those factors like childcare, it's also those caring adults in their world.

And so we have success coaches who are kind of standing arm in arm with cohorts of our students, helping them navigate our institution, as well as our partnerships so they get what they need in the moment and they can finish their education.

- Yeah, navigating the pathways really is the theme for this episode.

JB, Karen, Annie, thank you for everything you do to make this state a better place, and certainly thank you for joining us today for this really important conversation.

We want you to tell us what your community is doing, or how we can help you.

You can email us at ncimpact@unc.edu, or send a message on Twitter or Facebook.

And be sure to join us every Friday night at 7:30 on PBS North Carolina for new episodes of "ncIMPACT."

Coming up on ncIMPACT.

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[upbeat music] ♪ [upbeat music continues] - [Narrator] "ncIMPACT" is a PBS North Carolina production in association with the University of North Carolina School of Government.

Funding for "NncIMPACT" is made possible by.

- [Narrator] Changing the course of people's lives.

That's the impact UNC Health and the UNC School of Medicine work to deliver every day.

Our 40,000 team members across the state of North Carolina are committed to caring for you, our patients, and communities, as well as educating the next generation of healthcare professionals.

Individually, we can do a little, but collectively we can do a lot to create impact.