Youth - Youth Opportunity Grant

(YO Northside Mosaic Mural)

The Youth Opportunity Grant was viewed by the Department of Labor (DOL) as a youth development program with the goal of helping youth become productive members of the community. A youth development model based on one used by Howard Knoll in New York City was taught as the method to attain the desired results. HoustonWorks developed an integrated funded system where youth might be helped through a variety of funding sources and not just YOG. We were able to fit the services to the need of the customer and not just follow a script. Many of the customers were co-enrolled in other programs. The idea was that they were universal customers and not tied to any one program; WIA, Youth offenders or YO. Many youth were successful in this system.

The YO grant was a targeted area demonstration grant that required that its boundaries be within a recognized Empowerment Zone. The grant required that partnerships be development within the empowerment area with government, employers, non-profit, organizations and local educational institutions. HoustonWorks developed over 40 memorandums of understanding for this grant. A youth development model that called for close cooperation with local providers to make a major impact on the community after 5 years was established. An evaluation component was also nationally contracted to gather data for the 39 sites selected. Fifteen of the sites were rural or Indian reservations while 34 sites were urban. A very comprehensive reporting system was developed to measure progress for the programs.

Houston received $44 million during the almost 6 years in operation. The grant recipient was the local SDA (H-GAC) and HoustonWorks was the operator for the grant. Funding for the 1st two years was $12 million and decreased year after year.

The DOL developed a computerized measuring system that counted many different areas of performance. Enrollments and outcomes were monitored by DOL and Houston did very well in the area of youth employment. This grant had a 14 to 21 age requirement and all the youth had to live within the empowerment zone boundaries.

Houston had 4 distinct areas within its targeted grant area; East End, 3rd Ward, 5th Ward, and the near Northside. Youth career centers were developed within each area which also had a local high school near it. The career center was made to look much like a current career center. HoustonWorks hired the staff to man the centers and provide initial services. A vendors list of providers was developed to handle a variety of other services that our customers needed. At one time, over 100 staff worked in the YO program. We worked with many community based organizations to help them gain capacity and provide services to youth after the grant ended.

Houston Works was considered successful in the implementation of the grant. The strongest component was preparing and finding youth jobs. However, administration changes at the national level called for limiting youth development activities and the grantee were phased out. There is however, Many Lessons Learned that has been published about the experiences of YO.