Opportunities for Youth: The 1925 Project

Youth economic advancement

Long Beach

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

Long Beach faces a pressing yet often overlooked crisis: the pervasive challenges facing opportunity youth aged 19-25. These young adults, who are not consistently employed or enrolled in educational programs, exist in a perilous limbo, frequently falling through the cracks of social support systems. In Long Beach, approximately 12% of 16-24 year olds are not working or in school (National Equity Atlas, 2022). Unlike "systems-impacted youth" who may have a documented history with foster care, juvenile justice, or mental health systems, many opportunity youth lack formal classifications, rendering them invisible to the very services designed to help vulnerable populations. This absence of a clear "system-impacted" label creates barriers to accessing resources, exacerbating their struggles with homelessness, lack of economic opportunity, and systemic inequities. A proactive learning environment providing a supportive social base, housing, mentorship, and economic opportunities is needed.

The 1925 Project is a learning environment tailored to the unique needs of a population for whom typical education strategies have been ineffective. We approach GED completion, life-skills learning and job training from a psychosocial perspective. These 19- to 25-year-old men have suffered isolation due to the fracturing or complete loss of primary attachment structures exacerbated by complex trauma. Our environment is designed to first provide a place of belonging through an intentional network of longitudinal relationships composed of fellow learners who reside and learn together in a tight-knit community, in-residence mentors, daily academic tutors, daily job-skill mentors and bi-weekly therapists.
Alongside these relationships, The1925 will offer the following program elements:
Group residence for one year (with a second-year option)
Individualized learning plans with personal mentoring
Educational specialist for assessment and learning evaluation
Tutoring for GED completion
Life Skills training
Connection to wrap-around services – emphasis on therapy/counseling
On-the-Job training in manual labor (i.e. painting, roofing) and food services
Direct employment opportunities
After our first year, The 1925 Project aims to become self-sustaining through the young men's employment. This project ensures a vital safety net for those currently overlooked, creating a stable social base, fostering resilience and setting youth on a path to long-term success and stability.

The 1925 Project is designed as a psychosocial relation-based learning environment. Baked into the design is achieved independence – for the learner and the program itself. The household-sized system enables a scalable and transportable model. In the short term, this grant will fund prototype testing with eight participants to validate design features related to these long-term goals: stable social base, housing security and job placement. In the long term, we will incubate the 1925 Project across LA County. The desired effect is a dynamic shift in outcomes for 19-25-year-olds that uplifts the entire community. We know educated and employed young adults boost the economy and break cycles of intergenerational poverty. Fewer young people will experience homelessness, easing strain on social services and improving public health. Investing in our youth doesn’t just change individual lives; it also strengthens LA County's economic and social fabric, building a more equitable future for all.