Our Young People
CTOP’s social investments are designed to benefit young people ages 14 to 26 who are severely off-track or disconnected from education and employment.
The young people who are part of CTOP’s target population face structural, institutional, and other complex challenges. They are disproportionately more likely to identify ethnically as Black or Hispanic and to live in systemically under-resourced communities. The conditions young people experience as a result of overt and tacit kinds of racism, limited access to resources, and chronic traumas often endemic to multi-generational poverty are a function of pervasive systemic inequities that can lead to the presentation of “risk indicators,” which CTOP uses to describe our target population and differentiate among sub-groups within it. Our purpose in doing so is to ensure we invest in nonprofits serving the young people we intend to reach, and then best support our grantee partners in their work to design their programming and services in response to the specific needs of the youth they serve.
- Youth who are experiencing being severely off-track are enrolled in high school but are at risk of dropping out, as indicated by chronic absenteeism, failure to earn credits in a timely way, and/or 2+ suspensions; and, they have been failed by the traditional high school environment to the extent that they need intensive additional supports to get back on track to graduate – whether provided within the traditional high school context or an alternative education setting – such as mentoring and comprehensive case management that incorporates trauma-informed practices.
Youth who are experiencing being disconnected do not have a high school diploma and are not enrolled in school, or do have a high school diploma but are not participating in post-secondary education or the workforce in a sustained way. Additionally, they have experienced one or more of the following traumatic life events, which we classify as risk indicators in alignment with the broader evidence base on factors that increase an individual’s likelihood for becoming disconnected: involvement with the juvenile or criminal justice system, involvement with the Department of Children and Families including placement in foster care, periods of homelessness, and perpetrating and/or being victimized by violence.
For operational purposes in supporting grantees in designing and delivering effective programming that is customized to the needs of the young people they serve, we further differentiate between our target population sub-groups based on their readiness to engage in programming, using CTOP's framework for a young person's developmental progression toward becoming willing, ready, and able to succeed in school and work:
- For young people who are experiencing being severely off-track or moderately disconnected, the fear and stress that accompany the traumatic life event(s) they have experienced have undermined their ability to build trust and demonstrate key soft skills required to succeed in employment. As a result, they may be willing – but not yet ready or able – to engage in programming initially and require supports such as the delivery of cognitive-behavioral skills to strengthen their emotional regulation, in addition to more traditional workforce readiness programming and services.
- Young people who are experiencing being severely disconnected have experienced traumatic life events to such an extent that they are not yet willing to engage in traditional youth development programming. They require relentless outreach and other related services such as crisis response to establish a foundation of trust, which then leads them to become open to engaging in programming.
