Year Up is an award-winning national organization striving to close the Opportunity Divide by providing urban young adults (ages 18-24) with the skills, experience, and support that will empower them to reach their potential through professional careers and higher education. Through a one-year intensive program, Year Up utilizes a high support, high expectations model that combines marketable job skills, stipends, internships and college credits. Its holistic approach focuses on students’ professional and personal development to place these young adults on a viable path to economic self-sufficiency.
In 2016 Year Up will serve more than 3000 young people in thirteen U.S. sites. 85% of Year Up graduates are employed or enrolled in school full-time within four months of graduation, earning an average starting wage of $18/hour, equivalent to $36,000/year. One randomized control trial demonstrated a 30% boost in earnings for Year Up participants relative to young adults who qualified for the program but were not admitted (Economic Mobility Corporation, 2011).