Ready, Connected, Supported: A Framework for Youth Workforce Development and the YES Project

Ready, Connected, Supported: A Framework for Youth Workforce Development and the YES Project, a working paper from the Center for Promise--the research arm of America's Promise Alliance--provides an overview of the "Ready, Connected, Supported" framework--the backbone of America's Promise Alliance's YES Project, a national campaign to reduce youth unemployment. This framework represents a shared approach from which everyone from employers and public officials to community leaders and young people themselves is driving action toward increased opportunities for workplace success and development. In a nation built on the promise of opportunity, too many young people struggle to find a solid foothold in the world of work. The youth unemployment crisis is complex, pervasive, and persistent, with wide-reaching consequences for states and communities across the national and global economies. In the U.S., recent annual estimates indicate that 1.8 million young people ages 16-24 are available and actively searching for work, but are unable to secure a job. This working paper begins with an overview of the YES Project's guiding framework--the "Ready, Connected, Supported" framework and is followed by a brief review of existing literature outlining the importance and changing nature of work in the 21st century as well as a portrait of the youth employment crisis in the U.S. today. This background serves as context for the Ready, Connected, Supported framework, situating the three domains that make up the framework within the extant literature and research.