Overview

Administered by the California Employment Development Department, in coordination with the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, the Opportunity Young Adult Career Pathway Program (OYA) awards programs funds to design and implement services to improve employment outcomes and reduce persistent economic inequalities for young adults in California. It focuses on “opportunity young adults”: individuals between the ages of 18 and 28 who are neither working nor in school, especially those facing significant barriers to employment. The initiative aims to connect these young adults with high-quality, living-wage jobs that have opportunities for advancement. It combines education and sector training (training for jobs in specific industries and occupational clusters where there is strong local demand) with additional services that are tailored to individuals’ needs and that recognize the effects of trauma on their lives.

MDRC was selected as the technical assistance provider for OYA, supporting 25 program operators through an initiative called Building Opportunities and Optimizing Skills for Transitions (BOOST). The goals of BOOST are to (1) empower individual programs to use data to improve the implementation of OYA, (2) support group learning and problem-solving, and (3) identify promising practices to promote workforce development in California for opportunity young adults.

BOOST will be carried out in three phases, each aimed at helping programs improve employment outcomes for the young adults they serve. In the first phase, “Prepare,” BOOST will work with programs to assess their needs and help them design plans to test and measure new strategies. During the “Learn and Reflect” phase, programs will implement these ideas, receiving assistance from MDRC and their peers. Finally, in the “Sustain” phase, BOOST will work with programs to maintain effective approaches.

BOOST is funded by an award from the U.S. Department of Labor totaling $1.7 million (88 percent) and $240,000 (12 percent) from nonfederal sources.