PSI OVERVIEW

NYEC is currently in the implementation phase of the Postsecondary Success Initiative (PSI). The goal of the PSI is to strengthen the ability of a network of community based organizations to engage disconnected youth onto a path leading to postsecondary attainment and employment at a living wage. The PSI seeks to identify strategies, practices, and interventions to help low income youth and young adults access and obtain a postsecondary credential. In addition, this initiative aims to strengthen formal partnerships with postsecondary institutions; influence systems change to sustain programming for completion of postsecondary outcomes; and ultimately, to inform national and state policy.

The PSI is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, and the Open Society Foundations. Our partners in the PSI are YouthBuild USA, Jobs for the Future, and the Brandeis University Center for Youth and Communities.

The following organizations are participating in the PSI:  

• Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services (CASES) in New York, NY
• College Initiative in New York, NY
• Improved Solutions for Urban Systems, Inc. (ISUS) in Dayton, OH
• Larkin Street Youth Services in San Francisco, CA
• Los Angeles Conservation Corps in Los Angeles, CA
• MY TURN, Inc. in Brockton, MA
• Open Meadow Alternative Schools in Portland, OR
• Our Piece of the Pie (OPP) in Hartford, CT
• X-Cel, Inc. in Jamaica Plain, MA
• Youth Development Institute (YDI) in New York, NY

For more information about the PSI, check out the new video, Back on Track Through College: Voices from the Field, created by Jobs for the Future. The video showcases three years of work between the national network partners NYEC, YouthBuild USA, the Corps Network, and Jobs for the Future to build a new education pathway to reengage disconnected youth and young adults onto a path to postsecondary success. The video focuses on JFF's Back on Track Through College model and provides testimony on the impact of the PSI on formerly disconnected youth who are gaining secondary credentials, entering postsecondary education, and persisting in college.