What is AOYC?
The Austin Opportunity Youth Collaborative is a consortium of greater Austin-area community groups, who together represent a long history of providing coordinated services to youth. AOYC is collaborating closely with the Workforce Solutions Capital Area board to amplify a focus on opportunity youth for education initiatives that provide employment training opportunities and lead to jobs. AOYC is also digging deep into available data to take a closer look at the population-level needs of youth in Austin.
Education
AOYC helps ensure post-secondary access for opportunity youth across Austin so that they can escape the cycles of poverty.
Equity
All of AOYC's efforts include a lens toward amplifying the overall equity outcomes in the Austin community.
Employment
AOYC partners help Opportunity Youth find employment opportunities that lead to self-reliance and life success.
Who are the Opportunity Youth?
Opportunity Youth are people who are 16 to 24 years old and not sufficiently engaged in education and employment. This is typically due to systemic barriers that, we as a collaborative, plan to identify and address collectively.
Based on American Communities survey data (ACS), there are approximately 27 thousand opportunity youth in the greater Austin area.
Most opportunity youth get disconnected during post-secondary school.
Most opportunity youth have their high school diploma or GED.