On Monday, September 24, 2018, a group of design partners announced the Global Opportunity Youth Network (GOYN), a new effort to catalyze and support collaboratives of government, business, education, nonprofit, and youth leaders within a given community, who share a goal of increasing jobs and livelihoods for young people. These collaboratives will focus specifically on creating action plans in support of “opportunity youth”—young people who are out of school, unemployed, or working in informal jobs.

The Global Opportunity Youth Network is based at the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions and is being co-designed by partners Prudential Financial, the Global Development Incubator, and YouthBuild International. Prudential has also generously committed more than $5 million to seed the initiative. The organizations bring complementary strengths and expertise to the challenge of global youth unemployment and share a deep commitment to supporting pathways for economic opportunity.

In addition to the design partners, the initiative has been informed by dozens of expert interviews and thought leaders whose collective input was captured in the recently released report “A Global Opportunity: Get Youth Working,” which can be accessed here.

“There is now an opportunity for the sector to evolve from a perennial focus on finding the next ‘silver bullet’ single model, innovation, or organization. Instead, community leaders will work collaboratively to identify systemic approaches that draw on the best elements of different youth interventions most relevant to their local economy,” said Jamie McAuliffe, Senior Fellow at the Forum for Community Solutions.

GOYN will support community collaboratives through catalytic funding, a learning community, global advocacy, and a rigorous focus on data and evidence. GOYN will emphasize diagnosing and addressing the current and future impact of technology on economic pathways for youth, particularly young women. By 2023, GOYN will seek to establish collaboratives in five communities experiencing chronic youth unemployment and will aim to show positive, sustained economic impacts for hundreds of thousands of youth. GOYN’s long-term vision, aligned with the 2030 Social Development Goals, is to expand the network to include dozens of communities that are leading the way to achieve results for millions of global opportunity youth.

“Today Prudential furthers our commitment to supporting pathways for opportunity youth in the United States with an anchor investment in the Global Opportunity Youth Network. We look forward to collaborating with other private and public sector partners to accelerate economic opportunities for the millions of opportunity youth worldwide,” said Sarah Keh, Vice President of Corporate Giving, Prudential Financial, Inc.

GOYN is currently validating and refining its approach through meetings with community leaders, youth, and other decision makers in advance of its official launch in 2019. GOYN is exploring opportunities to engage with communities in Kenya, South Africa, Colombia, and India through a series of workshops and site visits. In December 2018, the Global Opportunity Youth Network will convene 20 global opportunity youth leaders in Philadelphia. There, participants will provide input into the initiative’s design pre-launch, and will form the initial cohort of a global opportunity youth network that will be a key supporting pillar of the effort.

“Over 40 years of YouthBuild history, we have seen and celebrated the profound ripple effect that the leadership of young people can have on the world – from the favelas of Brazil, to post-conflict Bosnia, to right here in Washington D.C. The Global Opportunity Youth Network will ensure youth voice and agency is central to its design and implementation,” said Tim Cross, President of YouthBuild International.

“Our experience building social impact initiatives at the Global Development Incubator has taught us that creating systems-level, scaled impact requires working with communities to meet them where they are. Expanding jobs and livelihoods for global opportunity youth is no different – and we’re excited to tap the power of local communities through this new initiative,” said Alice Gugelev, Director of Global Development Incubator.

For more information please contact Jamie McAuliffe, Senior Fellow at the Forum for Community Solutions via email: jamie.mcauliffe@aspeninstitute.org or phone: 917-282-9353. Learn more about GOYN here.