BACKGROUND In October 2018, San Francisco Mayor London N. Breed announced the launch of Opportunities for All (OFA), an initiative designed to address economic inequality by ensuring all young people can be a part of San Francisco’s thriving economy. Operated by the City and County of San Francisco, the initiative includes paid internships, mentorships, and pathways to employment for participants ages 13 to 24. OFA focuses on equitable access to these opportunities through connections, support, and resources for both job seekers and employers. 4 4
WHY OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL? Providing opportunities for youth to gain work experience These factors, in addition to the previously cited racial, beginning in high school gives youth the skills to succeed economic, and educational disparities, have created in the workforce, improves their probability to attain a cycle of limiting low-income youth to low-income long-term employment, increase their potential future opportunities, and high-income youth to high-income earnings, and builds a pipeline of competent talent for opportunities. employers. Although unemployment has decreased both nationally and in San Francisco, unemployment The OFA initiative’s intention is to break this cycle by: among youth remains high, especially among low and middle-income communities. • Promoting economic sustainability at a young age; • Connecting young people directly to paid, work- In San Francisco, not everyone is benefjting from the based learning opportunities to remove the City’s booming economy; a report from the Brookings economic barrier to success; Institution found that San Francisco has one of the largest wealth disparities in the nation. Racial disparities • Engaging a wide variety of public, private, and have been proven to play a part in this imbalance: across nonprofjt businesses and organizations to create a the nation, affmuent White teens are four times more catalog of opportunities spanning a broad range of likely to be employed than low-income Black youth, and industries and sectors; and twice as likely compared to Latino teens. Disconnects in educational opportunities also may be contributing • Centering the experience on the youth, giving them to the skills defjcit seen in high school students; less the autonomy to take responsibility for their success, than half of youth and employers say recent graduates and providing support when needed to ensure that leave school with the proper skills to succeed in today’s success. workforce despite 72% of teachers thinking their students are prepared. OFA is based on the idea that by providing paid work experiences for our diverse young people we are Persistent racial disparities exist across the certain connecting them to a more successful future and making populations in San Francisco, particularly afgecting African our city and communities stronger. The initiative is American, Pacifjc Islander, and Latinx youth. Despite helping to address the signifjcant gap in professional our City’s best intentions, innovative and renowned achievement facing low-income youth and youth of programs, and executive leadership consistent with our color – a key disparity preventing meaningful equity in progressive and compassionate values, these inequities San Francisco. remain. The OFA initiative leverages the private sector, local education system and City government to create The benefjts of equitable youth workforce development equitable opportunities for youth through workforce programs are connected to other positive outcomes connection, support, and job resources. in communities. Participants in work-based learning opportunities improve in areas associated with civic Cities around the globe, but particularly in the United engagement as well as skills development. OFA’s States, have long provided a broad range of workforce intention of not only ofgering all youth that are willing to development opportunities specifjcally for young work a paid internship, but capturing even the most at people. Historically, both in San Francisco and across the risk/vulnerable/overlooked population of youth, benefjts nation, these opportunities were either: society as a whole. Ensuring that youth are engaged in work opportunities during the typically idle times of • UNPAID – meaning youth from low- and middle- summer can prevent violent and property crimes from income families did not have the same economic happening. Further, ongoing recruitment helps develop support to work as youth from higher-income a diverse pool of local talent for coveted internships and families; and/or future employment. • LIMITED TO SPECIFIC INDUSTRIES (e.g. nonprofjt, Through this efgort, OFA will change the broader narrative child care, retail, food service, etc.) – meaning youth of what it means to pursue a “normal” career – in essence, were not able to access opportunities in other making it normal for any young person, regardless of industries that could lead to longer-term or higher- their background, to become a doctor, a CEO, an artist, or wage employment Mayor of their hometown. 5 5
SUMMER 2019 HIGHLIGHTS TOTAL PLACEMENTS + = 2,300 1,500 3,800 EXISTING NEW TOTAL YOUTH PLACED PLACEMENTS PLACEMENTS IN PAID INTERNSHIPS DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN • Asian American (East Asian): 36% • Black or African American: 19% • Hispanic or Latinx: 18% • Asian American (South Asian): 10% Ethnic Demographics - based on survey of 1,110 youth • White: 8% • Undisclosed: 5% • Native Hawaiian/Pacifjc Islander: 2% • Multi-racial: 1% • African: 1% • Native American/American Indian: <1% PLACEMENTS BY INDUSTRY VS. YOUTH INTERESTS / DREAM JOBS STEM Cosmetology Construction / Automotive Civic Engagement Law Culinary / Hospitality Education Entrepreneur Recreation Arts Business / Office Retail Various Undecided 0 20 40 60 80 Youth have an opportunity to explore a variety of industries, more than 50% of respondents identified their career jobs are in the STEM fields. STEM BREAKOUT Medical Technology Engineering Science Undecided 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 11
JOB EXPERIENCE TWO 14% ONE Number of previous jobs 26% NONE reported by respondents 45.1% THREE OR MORE 14.9% YOUTH BY ZIP CODE 94112 158 94124 121 94134 110 94110 74 94116 64 94122 61 94132 50 94121 42 94118 29 94133 28 94127 30 94115 37 94102 27 94103 27 94107 20 94109 19 0 25 50 75 100 125 150 175 13
FRAMEWORK EQUITY OFA utilizes an equity-based framework modeled By placing youth experience at the core and working after the Bronfenbrenner Ecological System, which to ensure their success on an individual level, that emphasizes the importance of being cognizant success will begin to shift the larger narrative of of children’s inherent qualities and how they are how providing work-based learning opportunities infmuenced by their environments. OFA placed youth can create equitable communities. This begins experience at the center of the framework, focusing starting with the youth’s inner circle of families, peers on providing youth with meaningful employment and schools and eventually expanding to larger experiences, opportunities to engage with mentors communities, government structures, and economic and interact with non-parental adults, and the ability systems. to identify their own career aspirations by giving youth the option to explore jobs across a broad range of industries. EQUITY SKILLS YOUTH PRIORITIZED 10% 8% EQUAL / EQUALITY 5% HELP / HELPING COMMUNITY EVERYONE SUPPORT 3% FAIR 0% 6
A Conference Board survey of more than 400 employers How we frame the idea of these skills is informed by across the United States reported employers found youth desired skills identifjed by employers and how benefjcial lacking in skills necessary for success at work (Casner- outcomes can be achieved for the youth, their families, Lotto, 2006). In order to better prepare youth to enter the community in addition to employers. the workforce, there is a need to increase the number of programs ofgering work-based learning opportunities for • BASIC: reading comprehension, mathematics and youth (Symonds et al., 2011). basic written communication. More needs to be done to better prepare youth for work, • APPLIED: critical thinking, problem solving, improve their skills and provide experience employers professionalism and professional written are looking for in employees. communication. Providing learning in rich environments can be • EQUITY: practices that shift systems to improve transferred and places greater emphasis on problem outcomes and increase equity in employment solving; providing youth an opportunity to learn in work and income. environments will help them develop skills that will help them succeed in other environments. • EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT (EQ): recently EQ has been connected to soft skills Embedded as a core component of the work of and typically refers to one’s ability to recognize Opportunities for All, is a commitment to provide activities and manage their emotions, improve critical skills that help youth develop skills identifjed as lacking. As and performance. such, we ask all youth and employers to consider how to be intentional around basic and applied skills, as well as what is commonly known as soft skills and referred to here as Emotional Intelligence Quotient. BASIC SKILLS YOUTH WANTED TO DEVELOP / STRENGTHEN 40% 30% PERCENTAGE OF YOUTH 20% 10% READING MATH WRITING EQ 0% 7
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