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Youth Opportunity Baltimore

An Effective Practice

Description

Youth Opportunity (YO!) Baltimore provides support services for youth and young adults to achieve their academic and career goals. At two YO! Centers, caring adults provide literacy and GED classes, career training, health education, and many other support services that prepare young people for successful careers. YO! Baltimore also sponsors FUTURES Works, a collaboration with the United States Department of Labor and Baltimore City Public Schools to help students improve academic performance, and After School Matters, an after-school work-training internship program. YO! Baltimore runs an alternative high school, Youth Opportunity Academy. Additionally, youth who have demonstrated anti-social or deviant behavior participate in Pre-Adjudication Coordination and Training (PACT) as an alternative to being sentenced to juvenile detention.

Goal / Mission

YO! Baltimore helps young people, previously disconnected from traditional learning environments, to increase their wage earnings and education credentials.

Results / Accomplishments

Compared to non-participants, YO! Baltimore members earn 35% more, are employed at a 42% higher rate, are one third less likely to be arrested and convicted, and are half as likely to drop out of school. Female participants are 25% less likely to become pregnant and give birth.

About this Promising Practice

Organization(s)
Baltimore Mayor's Office of Employment Development
Primary Contact
Ernest Dorsey
Youth Opportunity Division
Mayor's Office of Employment Development
101 W. 24th Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
410-396-6722
edorsey@oedworks.com
http://www.yobaltimore.org/yo_contact.html
Topics
Education / Literacy
Education / Student Performance K-12
Education / Educational Attainment
Organization(s)
Baltimore Mayor's Office of Employment Development
Date of implementation
2000
Geographic Type
Urban
Location
Baltimore, MD
For more details
Additional Audience
Youth
Kansas Health Matters