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Fifteen years of building opportunity in New Orleans
The story of a coordinated effort to support young people ages 16–24 who were disconnected from school and work — historically called Opportunity Youth.
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The story, in five minutes
From coordinated efforts to an integrated ecosystem
A high-level look at the moments that shaped this work. Select any stop to see what happened.
2010–13 · A rallying call for better outcomes
National attention turns into local urgency.
- The White House Council for Community Solutions names 6.7 million disconnected young people a national crisis
- New Orleans funders — Baptist Community Ministries, JPMorgan Chase, W.K. Kellogg Foundation — begin organizing locally
- A 2013 report finds 52% of Black boys and young men in New Orleans out of the labor force
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- In 2012, the Aspen Institute launches the Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund (OYIF), backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and others
- In 2013, Aspen's OYIF provides $500,000 to communities nationally, with the Partnership for Youth Development (PYD) in New Orleans as a recipient
- On the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the city wrestled publicly with unequal economic recovery; in 2014, Mayor Mitch Landrieu announced a citywide economic opportunity strategy
2015 · YouthShift NOLA and five founding priorities
200 organizations align around one shared framework for the first time.
- Baptist Community Ministries and the Partnership for Youth Development (PYD) launch YouthShift NOLA
- Four founding priorities set: data & research, backbone supports, program quality, youth voice
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- YouthShift adopted a whole-child, collective-impact approach for New Orleanians ages birth to 25, with support from the national nonprofit Forum for Youth Investment (FYI)
- Key data cited at launch: 1 in 3 of the city's 78,000 youth lived in poverty; 18% of 16–24 year olds were neither working nor in school
2016–19 · Coordinating efforts take shape
Shared infrastructure gets built for the first time.
- EMPLOY (Employment and Mobility Pathways Linked for Opportunity Youth) launches as the city's first coordinating hub for data and pathways
- New Orleans gets its first reliable count of opportunity youth
- The New Orleans Youth Program Quality Initiative (YPQI) grows from a pilot to 31 organizations
- Opportunity Works helps ~500 young people move from high school equivalency (HiSET) programs into college and careers
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- EMPLOY was funded by the Aspen Institute's OYIF and led jointly by PYD and the Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives at Tulane University
- The Cowen Institute's 2016 report, No Longer Invisible, estimated 6,820 opportunity youth in the city that year
- NOLA-YPQI is based on the David P. Weikart Center's youth program quality model, used by more than 4,000 programs in 41 states
- Opportunity Works was delivered through four organizations under a "no-wrong-door" approach: the Cowen Institute, YEP, Liberty's Kitchen, and Bard College
2018–20 · Leadership transitions
Key anchors step back, and new leadership steps up.
- NOYA and CYPB take on shared leadership of the work
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- In 2018, funders asked several stakeholders to apply to lead a newly formed OY collaborative; responsibilities fully transitioned to NOYA and CYPB
- EMPLOY sought a home outside the Cowen Institute but was unable to secure financial backing, and was ultimately sunset
- Baptist Community Ministries (BCM), a major early funder, shifted its focus to Early Childhood Education during this period
2021–23 · New capabilities take root
The New Orleans Career Center becomes a turning point.
- The New Orleans Career Center (NOCC) expands credentialing in the trades and healthcare, connecting youth directly to employers
- NOYA opens the Re-Engagement Center, uniting 18 partner organizations under one roof
- The Children's Bureau of New Orleans launches a new mental health peer-support model
- LA FIRST is signed into law, creating statewide data tracking for opportunity youth outcomes
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- NOCC's expanded credentials include NCCER core training plus specializations in electrical, welding, and HVAC, and healthcare credentials including EMT, Medical Assisting, and Pharmacy Technician
- NOCC's employer network includes Ochsner Health, LCMC Health, Broadmoor Construction, All-Star Electric, Clover, and United Way
- The Re-Engagement Center aims to reduce youth disconnection rates in New Orleans by 7% by 2026
- LA FIRST is housed at the Kathleen Babineaux Blanco Public Policy Center at UL-Lafayette, and will publish annual reports on education-to-career transitions and outcomes
- In Year 8, the NOLA-YPQI network — grown to 46 partner organizations serving roughly 40,000 young people — bested national averages in all four program quality assessment domains for the first time
2024 · Integrated capabilities deliver key wins
Local work reaches the state legislature.
- Opportunity Pass launches free transit for youth 16–24, funded by $2.5 million in ARPA dollars
- Senate Resolution 47 (SR47) passes, creating the Louisiana Opportunity Youth Task Force
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- Opportunity Pass was youth-developed: transit ambassadors created the program's materials and processes, informed by youth focus groups
- The program is a multi-partner effort: the New Orleans Public Library administers sign-ups, Ride New Orleans manages outreach, CYPB supports program development, and the RTA distributes passes
- SR47 followed the 2024 OY Day at the Capitol, organized by the Louisiana Opportunity Youth Alliance (LOYAL)
- The Task Force includes LOYAL members, lived experts, and representatives from the Louisiana Workforce Commission, Department of Education, and other state agencies
Big bets, key wins
What this work has made possible
A curated set of wins from across the ecosystem. New wins are added as nonprofit partners share theirs.
New Orleans Career Center expands
NOCC expands credentialing in the trades and healthcare, connecting trainees directly to employers.
Re-Engagement Center
A free resource center connecting youth ages 16–24 to post-secondary opportunities and careers.
Community Mental Health Workers
A new peer-support model matching youth workforce participants with mental health support.
YPQI network scale
46 partners bested national averages in all four program quality domains for the first time.
Opportunity Pass
Free RTA transit passes for youth ages 16–24, funded through $2.5M in ARPA dollars.
LOYAL and SR47
Passage of Senate Resolution 47 established the Louisiana Opportunity Youth Task Force.
The spine of this work
How the ecosystem's priorities evolved
From four founding priorities in 2015 to a more integrated set of capabilities today — plus one entirely new area of focus. Open any thread to see its own story.
Data & Research → Data Community of Practice From a shared case management tool orgs were hesitant to adopt, to six organizations setting ten common metrics for a collective dashboard.
In the early years, getting organizations to share data at all was the challenge. When Opportunity Youth-serving organizations were first asked to adopt a common case management system, many were hesitant — leaders worried that centralizing data would be used against them competitively, or affect future funding. It took time for that hesitation to turn into trust through sustained relationship-building.
- 2016 Organizations begin using a shared data platform (ETO) through the Opportunity Youth Data Sharing Collaborative, with real hesitancy about how the data would be used
- 2016 First rigorous local count of opportunity youth, published by the Cowen Institute
- 2024 Six organizations set ten common metrics for a shared collective-impact dashboard, led by the New Orleans Children & Youth Planning Board (CYPB)
“Data collection and collaboration happen at the speed of trust; sustainable funding is integral.”
Single-Anchor Backbone Support → Population Focused Backbone Supports From a single anchor organization, to a distributed set of backbone orgs each leading on a specific population's pathway.
For years, the ecosystem depended on a single anchor organization to hold funding and coordination together. EMPLOY was that anchor — the coordinating hub for data and pathways across the city. Over time, the model shifted: rather than one organization holding the center, multiple organizations now each lead on a specific population's pathway.
- 2014 EMPLOY (Employment and Mobility Pathways Linked for Opportunity Youth) launches as the ecosystem's central coordinating hub, funded by the Aspen Institute's OYIF and led by the Partnership for Youth Development (PYD) and the Cowen Institute
- 2018 NOLABA (the New Orleans Business Alliance) steps down as lead funder amid leadership change
- 2018 NOYA and CYPB take on shared leadership of the work going forward
- 2021–23 New Orleans Career Center (NOCC) becomes a dedicated anchor for workforce credentialing, connecting youth directly to employers like Ochsner Health and LCMC Health
- 2023 NOYA opens the Re-Engagement Center, uniting 18 partner organizations under one roof
- 2023 Children's Bureau of New Orleans launches Community Mental Health Workers, a new anchor for youth mental health support
“Different populations need different pathways. One-size-fits-all is a barrier, not a service.”
Piloting Program Quality → Robust Program Quality From a pilot with a handful of organizations, to a network of 46 partners besting national quality benchmarks for the first time.
Program quality work in New Orleans didn't happen overnight, and its own leaders are candid about that. What began as a small pilot with a handful of organizations took nearly a decade of steady investment — coaching, assessment, professional development — before it became something the rest of the country could learn from.
- 2015 NOLA Youth Program Quality Initiative (YPQI) launches
- 2017 Pilot doubles to 31 participating organizations
- 2023 Network grows to 46 partner organizations serving roughly 40,000 young people
- 2023 NOLA-YPQI bests national averages in all four program quality assessment domains for the first time ever
“These accomplishments have taken nearly a decade to realize. This work is not quick, and it can't be.”
Youth-Informed Programming → Youth Voice and Narrative Change From youth participation in program design, to young people training as storytellers reshaping how the whole city talks about opportunity.
Youth voice began as a design input — young people consulted on programs built primarily by adults. Over time, that input has become authorship: young people are now trained as journalists and storytellers, reshaping how the entire city talks about opportunity, not just how individual programs are designed.
- 2015–19 Youth participation becomes part of program design and development for some of the initiatives in the ecosystem
- 2023 CYPB, NOYA, and the Office of Youth and Families launch the Youth Master Plan, a 10-year roadmap for New Orleans youth built with young people, parents, and community leaders directly at the table
- Ongoing LEDE trains creative professionals ages 18–25 from underrepresented communities to transform New Orleans' local information ecosystem
- Ongoing Frameworks Institute trains ecosystem organizations on research-based narrative strategies, moving beyond labels like "Opportunity Youth" toward stories that highlight both challenges and potential
“We need to make sure that in the OY space, we create the ways that let the youth identify and create their value.”
Emerged, 2020–2025 Policy & Advocacy Policy and advocacy work takes time — and this priority emerged once the ecosystem's programmatic work grew strong and organized enough to demand change at the state level.
This priority emerged because the ecosystem's programmatic work became strong enough and organized enough to demand change at a policy level — bringing youth leaders and young people together to transform systems and tell their own stories. In a short span, that work reached the Louisiana state legislature.
- 2024 Opportunity Pass launches free transit for youth ages 16–24, funded by $2.5 million in ARPA dollars
- 2024 The Louisiana Opportunity Youth Alliance (LOYAL) forms to focus on narrative change and advocacy at the state level
- 2024 Senate Resolution 47 passes, establishing the Louisiana Opportunity Youth Task Force
“There's too much focus on individual change as opposed to systemic change.”
Voices
In their own words
Click the title on the map to open it — each image is a voice. Pan and zoom to explore the themes.
Internal draft — candidate voices only. No quote is cleared for publication. Consent not requested.
Click a voice to hear it here · drag to pan
Tap a question, then a voice. The quote opens here — no external article.
Theme What does reconnection feel like?
Youth voice · Faith Robinson Being seen at the drive-through
“This lady came through the drive-through. I love the way that you articulate. I love the way you speak. You're so lively. How do you feel about being part of the Youth Development program?”
NOYA — Earn & Learn Program Coordinator
The only complete first-person Opportunity Youth reconnection arc in the interview set.
Youth voice · Faith Robinson Not performing struggles
“It's not just about performing your struggles, but about overcoming them. We know what our struggles are. But what are we gonna do about them? Let's really do something about it and do it together.”
NOYA — Earn & Learn Program Coordinator
Anti-deficit framing from inside the journey — agency without a rescue narrative.
Youth voice · Faith Robinson Finishing with more than I started
“If I started with 8, I'm finishing with 87, you know. So that always meant a lot to me, because that means that I'm really putting in that work.”
NOYA — Earn & Learn Program Coordinator
Full circle: the participant who returned as coordinator, still measuring herself by the work.
Youth voice · Alexis Read Stability as the gift
“Something that NOYA gave a lot of fellows was stability, including myself.”
Lede New Orleans — Program Director; NOYA first-cohort fellow
Names what the fellowship actually gave — not inspiration, stability.
Program · Michele Seymour The young people redesigned us
“The young people said that they wanted programs that provided trusting and caring relationships with adults. They wanted safe spaces to build relationships with their peers.”
NOYA — Director, Re-Engagement Center
Institutional proof that youth voice reshaped a flagship service.
Program · Michele Seymour A seat is not enough
“Reconnection doesn't happen immediately. So even though the opportunity might be there — the seat is available — what's necessary to get a disconnected young person to that seat?”
NOYA — Director, Re-Engagement Center
Reconnection as process — the front-door insight no feature story can skip.
Program · Darrin McCall Second, third, fourth chances
“People need second, third, fourth chances to get it right.”
Youth Empowerment Project — Chief Program Officer
Frontline scale with dignity-first framing of what re-engagement takes.
Theme Who gets to decide?
Youth voice · Faith Robinson No decisions about us without us
“We wanna be the ones all making these decisions about us. And then that ended up being our slogan. No decisions about us without us.”
NOYA — Earn & Learn Program Coordinator
Youth voice as a slogan that grew out of lived insistence, not branding.
Youth voice · Alexis Read Adultism in the system
“I think there needs to be greater input of youth voice. I think adultism within systems — adultism within the education system — has to be addressed.”
Lede New Orleans — Program Director; NOYA first-cohort fellow
What needs to change, said from the same generation the site is about.
Program · Michele Seymour The young people redesigned us
“The young people said that they wanted programs that provided trusting and caring relationships with adults. They wanted safe spaces to build relationships with their peers.”
NOYA — Director, Re-Engagement Center
Institutional proof that youth voice reshaped a flagship service.
Vision · Dominique Butler Money in young people’s hands
“That's 25 grantees total at $105,000.”
NOYA — Director of Communications
Concrete youth power: grant dollars steered by young people.
Vision · Dominique Butler Room to explore
“Young people have the room to explore and not feel boxed in.”
NOYA — Director of Communications
Anti-deficit aspiration for what young people deserve.
Theme Why does disconnection happen?
Youth voice · Alexis Read Calling things what they are
“I think it starts first with calling things what they are and not even using this flowery language, such as opportunity, because opportunity youth are not calling themselves opportunity youth.”
Lede New Orleans — Program Director; NOYA first-cohort fellow
Sharpest language critique in the set — from a youth-generation systems analyst.
Youth voice · Alexis Read You're not a bad kid
“Helping people who are opportunity youth to understand like this ain't all your fault. You're not a bad person. You're not a bad kid — you just probably had a bad hand dealt to you.”
Lede New Orleans — Program Director; NOYA first-cohort fellow
Peer reassurance that would sound patronizing from an adult — and a bridge into adultism critique.
Youth voice · Alexis Read Funneled without recognizing it
“New Orleans is a place where it's something that a large majority of the population gets funneled into without really recognizing it.”
Lede New Orleans — Program Director; NOYA first-cohort fellow
Names how disconnection is systemic in New Orleans, not individual failure.
Program · Darrin McCall Traditional systems fail
“Traditional systems fail this population of young people. That's why YEP is here.”
Youth Empowerment Project — Chief Program Officer
Names why YEP exists without making failure the young person’s story.
Vision · Dr. James Dabney No counter-narrative
“Our young people are fed so much negative things about themselves on a constant basis. There's no counter narrative to what they experience.”
NOYA — Executive Director
Why this storytelling work exists — young people are fed negativity constantly.
Barrier · Jake Gleghorn The fumble
“The fumble that often happens between K-12 education and systems that are at least tasked at the institution level with addressing the needs of young adults.”
New Orleans Career Center — Chief Strategy Officer
Sharpest framing of the K-12 → adulthood handoff gap.
Barrier · Jake Gleghorn A hollow promise
“A lot of young people are made promises about what a high school degree will give them… and then are confronted with a series of realities that make that promise ring pretty hollow.”
New Orleans Career Center — Chief Strategy Officer
Names why a diploma alone does not equal opportunity.
Theme What gets in the way?
Program · Michele Seymour A seat is not enough
“Reconnection doesn't happen immediately. So even though the opportunity might be there — the seat is available — what's necessary to get a disconnected young person to that seat?”
NOYA — Director, Re-Engagement Center
Reconnection as process — the front-door insight no feature story can skip.
Program · Darrin McCall Second, third, fourth chances
“People need second, third, fourth chances to get it right.”
Youth Empowerment Project — Chief Program Officer
Frontline scale with dignity-first framing of what re-engagement takes.
Program · Darrin McCall Traditional systems fail
“Traditional systems fail this population of young people. That's why YEP is here.”
Youth Empowerment Project — Chief Program Officer
Names why YEP exists without making failure the young person’s story.
Barrier · Courtney Jackson Sixty minutes to a job
“Our access to jobs metrics — where we're able to see access to jobs via transit in 60 minutes or less with our current transit system — was a key metric.”
Ride New Orleans — Executive Director
The clearest concrete barrier metric in the interview set.
Barrier · Kathy Grote They always wanted to work
“We were never teaching young people how to want to work. They always wanted to work.”
Independent consultant — program quality
Single best anti-deficit barrier epigraph in the set.
Barrier · Jake Gleghorn A hollow promise
“A lot of young people are made promises about what a high school degree will give them… and then are confronted with a series of realities that make that promise ring pretty hollow.”
New Orleans Career Center — Chief Strategy Officer
Names why a diploma alone does not equal opportunity.
Barrier · Caitlin Scanlan Never want — capacity
“The issue has never been want. It's been ability — and ability isn't performance. Ability is capacity because of lack of resources.”
Café Reconcile — Chief Development Officer
Reframes access: the issue is resources and matchmaking, not motivation.
Theme What needs to change?
Youth voice · Faith Robinson Not performing struggles
“It's not just about performing your struggles, but about overcoming them. We know what our struggles are. But what are we gonna do about them? Let's really do something about it and do it together.”
NOYA — Earn & Learn Program Coordinator
Anti-deficit framing from inside the journey — agency without a rescue narrative.
Youth voice · Alexis Read Calling things what they are
“I think it starts first with calling things what they are and not even using this flowery language, such as opportunity, because opportunity youth are not calling themselves opportunity youth.”
Lede New Orleans — Program Director; NOYA first-cohort fellow
Sharpest language critique in the set — from a youth-generation systems analyst.
Youth voice · Alexis Read You're not a bad kid
“Helping people who are opportunity youth to understand like this ain't all your fault. You're not a bad person. You're not a bad kid — you just probably had a bad hand dealt to you.”
Lede New Orleans — Program Director; NOYA first-cohort fellow
Peer reassurance that would sound patronizing from an adult — and a bridge into adultism critique.
Youth voice · Alexis Read Adultism in the system
“I think there needs to be greater input of youth voice. I think adultism within systems — adultism within the education system — has to be addressed.”
Lede New Orleans — Program Director; NOYA first-cohort fellow
What needs to change, said from the same generation the site is about.
Vision · Dominique Butler Room to explore
“Young people have the room to explore and not feel boxed in.”
NOYA — Director of Communications
Anti-deficit aspiration for what young people deserve.
Vision · Dr. James Dabney Not pipelined by zip code
“They have all the resources and access that they need to make well-informed decisions about their lives. And you're not pipelined to certain industries or fields because of their zip code.”
NOYA — Executive Director
Present-tense institutional vision grounded in a first-gen personal arc.
Vision · Dr. James Dabney No counter-narrative
“Our young people are fed so much negative things about themselves on a constant basis. There's no counter narrative to what they experience.”
NOYA — Executive Director
Why this storytelling work exists — young people are fed negativity constantly.
Vision · Karen Evans A different axis
“From a policy perspective, what have we been doing? We've been trying to move the earth on a different axis. We haven't gotten that done, but we have stirred the pot well enough to adjust the mindset a bit.”
Children & Youth Planning Board
Two decades of policy and narrative change from the publication venue itself.
Barrier · Caitlin Scanlan Never want — capacity
“The issue has never been want. It's been ability — and ability isn't performance. Ability is capacity because of lack of resources.”
Café Reconcile — Chief Development Officer
Reframes access: the issue is resources and matchmaking, not motivation.
Take this with you
Resources for other cities and funders
This work is meant to be a replicable model. These are the pieces built to travel.
Presentation
Full storytelling deck
The complete presentation this page is drawn from.
Coming soon
Findings report
A synthesis report built once the full site is locked.
Reports
Source research & data
The reports and data behind this story will be linked in full.