Young Adult Capacity Initiative Cross-Site Analysis

This cross-site analysis presents findings about the implementation, impact, and outcomes of the Young Adult Capacity Initiative (YACI), at 13 community-based organizations in New York City. These agencies received technical assistance and small incentive grants from the Fund for the City of New York Youth Development Institute (YDI) to build their capacity to address the needs of "disconnected" young adults. The Academy for Educational Development (AED) studied five of these sites intensively and produced case studies in a separate document. AED also produced a separate report of findings from a longitudinal survey of YACI participants. This cross-site analysis was undertaken to foster understanding of the overall initiative and thus contribute to the knowledge base in several areas, including the needs of disconnected youth, youth development in general, community-based young adult services, and the effective provision of technical assistance (TA) to community-based, youth-serving organizations. AED and YDI identified a set of issues and topics they considered important for interpreting the case-study data and "telling the story." The cross-site findings show a broad range of implementation types and programming particulars, as well as program challenges and success factors. Findings derived from this breadth of experience illuminate ways to implement, sustain, and scale up programming to address the needs of disconnected youth and young adults--an underserved segment of the youth population. (Contains 2 footnotes.)