Innovative Workforce Enterprises for At-Promise LA Youth

Income inequality

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

New Earth’s participants are systems- or justice-impacted youth with backgrounds involving probation and group homes, juvenile halls, continuation schools, foster system, homelessness, and/or public schools in communities characterized by high concentrations of poverty, violence, and gang activity, and 99% are people of color. The youth entering our program have no post-secondary education and limited experience. They too often experience minimum wage with little growth potential or benefits, further perpetuating cycles of economic precarity and potential recidivism. Youth with a history of system involvement face many barriers to economic advancement, including being stigmatized as delinquent by employers, interrupted formal education, and lack of family or other support systems. Plus, they have complex socio-emotional needs: 88% of our participants report past trauma, 35% are victims of community violence, and 47% struggled with substance abuse.

To economically empower system-impacted LA youth, New Earth offers work readiness and employment/apprenticeship with empathically engaged employers, vocational training, supportive on-the-job opportunities, and mental health support services. We help participants customize their career pathway or participate in our social enterprises or fellowships, which include New Earth Digital and hospitality training focused on customer service and retail industry fundamentals. Our team meets with each job-seeking young person to identify goals and employment barriers. Participants also receive soft skills job readiness and are paired with a Care Manager for a compassionate clinical assessment and wrap-around support that ensures access to housing and food security, needed therapy and/or socio-emotional support, as well as our New Earth Campus mental health services, including individual therapy sessions. We project to be able to increase enrollment to 116 participants/year as we open new career pathways, industry training partnerships, and social enterprises in 2024-25.

Since inception, New Earth has been dedicated to the advancement of low-income, marginalized, underserved, system- and justice-involved youth, who are mostly people of color. In short, New Earth is systematically changing the narrative aboutsystem- and justice-involved youth in Los Angeles.Success for our Workforce Innovation programming happens when youth secure permanent employment in highly desirable and lucrative fields, such as in digital media industries—a creative technical industry in which people of color are currently woefully underrepresented. These quality jobs can transform these students’ lives and create resilient, thriving companies and communities, and a more just and equitable economy. As New Earth continues to impact individual lives through training and employment, we plan to expand our reach through new institutional partnerships, enacting transformational systemic change and challenging the stereotyped narratives for youth of color in LA county.

Short term success is our youth receiving skills training, certification, and securing employment, while long-term impact is illustrated by our FREEE model and measured through case notes, quarterly surveys, and the I-COPPE well-being survey:
F (Formally Free of System Involvement) - 93% of students remain free from incarceration
R (Regularly Housed) - 95% are stably housed
E (Educationally Advanced) - 87% graduate high school
E (Employable) - 75% are job-ready and placed in outside employment
E (Emotionally Balanced) - 75% increase their ability to manage emotions
To expand and scale our program, New Earth will:
Identify additional in-demand industries to expand in-house training and paid fellowship/apprenticeship opportunities.
Partner with local workforce boards to ensure accreditation of all apprenticeships.
Increase the number of companies employing our program participants by 25% by the end of 2025.
Scale our NE Digital and other Workforce programming to 120 youth annually.