Building Pathways to Adulthood

In January, IEL’s Ready to Achieve Mentoring Program (RAMP), and Right Turn Career-Focused Initiative joined youth and programs around the country in celebrating National Mentoring Month. Youth engaged in relationship-building activities, including game nights, career tours, and movie nights (shout-out to those who saw Hidden Figures and met a female NASA scientist who knew the […]

The IEL-led National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth released a series of briefs for community colleges: Supporting Student Success through Connecting Activities. Community college leaders are increasingly concerned with finding ways to better support and engage students to improve college completion rates. The series highlights the importance of connecting postsecondary students to services and

Since 2013, IEL’s Right Turn Career-Focused Transition Initiative has yielded an array of positive outcomes for youth involved with the juvenile justice system, from restorative justice projects to school retention and job placements. IEL recently convened the final annual meeting of the first five sites of the program, with an overall theme of justice and

Many students, including students with disabilities, enter postsecondary education lacking the personal skills, knowledge, and attributes they need to achieve their education and career goals. To increase student retention, completion, and career readiness, postsecondary institutions need to include youth development and leadership opportunities that help students build personal competencies. The new guide by the IEL-led

In July, 14 youth service professionals graduated from the D.C. Youth Workforce Leaders Academy (YWLA), a 10-month professional development program co-led by IEL and the DC Alliance of Youth Advocates. YWLA develops competencies and creates a peer learning community for staff from organizations that provide workforce development services to D.C. youth ages 16 to 24,

The National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth (NCWD/Youth) recently released an info brief designed to help staff, faculty, and administrators in postsecondary institutions better understand how engaging families of students with disabilities can make them partners in student success. This brief highlights findings from a national online dialogue on the topic conducted in

On April 15, IEL and the American Youth Policy Forum hosted the second annual Samuel Halperin Lecture and Youth Public Service Award. The lecture, presented by Michele Cahill of the National Center for Civic Innovation, focused on how we can support and engage students in college and career readiness. Ebony Rempson, a 21-year-old AmeriCorps volunteer

The IEL-led National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth recently released By Youth, For Youth: Employment, a youth-driven, youth-friendly guide to exploring careers and preparing for, landing, and keeping a job. The guide includes tips, resources, and checklists related to finding the right job, preparing a resuming, acing an interview, disability disclosure and accommodations, keeping

On December 29, 2015, the U.S. District Court in Oregon awarded a landmark settlement that will impact almost 8,000 workers with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the state. The settlement addresses the claim that these workers with disabilities were unnecessarily segregated into sheltered workshops, where they receive sub-minimum wage pay, instead of receiving supported employment

IEL announced the selection of four sites across the country to be in the second cohort of its Right Turn Career-Focused Transition Initiative for youth in the juvenile justice system. Earlier this year, IEL was awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to serve as an intermediary organization to work with communities on