Advancing Opportunities for Adolescents

This initiative focuses on strengthening high-quality, interest-driven career awareness and exploration opportunities for youth in the more than 80 percent of time they spend learning outside of school. Wallace expects to invest up to $120 million in the six-year initiative. 

• Seven cross-sector partnerships will deepen their collaboration with the afterschool, enrichment, and summer programs that comprise the out-of-school sector in their communities. 

• Partnerships will work to expand access and opportunities, strengthen youth development practices and programs, plan for sustainable funding, and pair young people with caring adults who can help them navigate a personalized plan, among other things.

• They will also participate in national and local research.

Learn more about the cross-sector partnerships selected to participate in the initiative. 

American Institutes for Research will lead a national research study to document the impact on youth outcomes and share lessons learned, which may include:

• Learning how cross-sector partnerships can leverage existing out-of-school time programs to advance their goals for youth economic mobility
•  Understanding how communities can, at scale, expand the capacity of the out-of-school time sector to provide high quality developmental programs that include a focus on career awareness, exploration, and preparation
• Understanding how cross-sector partnerships can create personalized supports to help young people connect the interests and skills they have developed in the out-of-school time sector to additional opportunities that can advance their goals for the future

The initiative research is also intended to produce evidence-based tools and playbooks that may be useful for the broader field.