Thank you for your interest in presenting at the 2021 Annual Forum. Please visit the Forum's homepage or nyec.org for more information about the convening, NYEC, and our network. We welcome proposals broadly related to improving the lives of marginalized young adults across the nation. We especially welcome current or former opportunity youth to propose sessions and attend the conference. The session proposal deadline is October 22nd 2021. 

Our Conference Tracks

• Employer Engagement and Emerging Industries
  •  How are we best preparing Opportunity Youth for growth in remote work? What innovative tools have emerged to make effective employer partnerships? How do we leverage our transition from COVID-19 to bring new employers and industries into the Opportunity Youth space? How are we preparing youth for growth industries like information technology, climate change, transportation, and construction?

• Research & Data
  • How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted marginalized populations? What new research topics need to be explored to equip the field in strengthening opportunities for OY? What are ways organizations can use data to improve programming, advocate for change, or obtain funding?

• Building Safe and Thriving Communities For Youth and Young Adults
  • How are communities responding to mindset shifts in regards to public safety? Which stakeholders are being utilized on the local, state and federal level to heal and strengthen communities?

• Work, Wellness and Healing
  • How are frontline staff building in a trauma-aware focus into their program while also prioritizing their own mental health? What does a healed and liberated work environment look like?

• Executive Leadership 

• What strategies for funding, programming, CQI, staffing, or systems development/integration that have worked well for your state or region? We are looking for innovative workshops highlighting things that work, elevate best practices, help solve shared challenges, showcase creative partnerships and/or facilitate dialogue between experts and organizations to improve outcomes for OY. 

• Youth with Disabilities
  • How can organizations tailor programs to meet the unique needs of young people living with disabilities? How do young people living with a disability experience existing employment programs? What unique challenges will youth with disabilities encounter post COVID-19? How are we prioritizing this population in economic and social relief efforts during and after the pandemic?

• Empowering Workspaces: Identity, Position, and Power
  • How are we equipping youth-serving professionals to make systemic change in their organizations? What does an awareness and purposeful recognition of intersectionality look like in workforce development and career development? How are agencies navigating and eliminating barriers related (but not limited to) race, gender, and status? How can leadership/workforce boards/policymakers lead from behind rather than top-down?  

• Re-engagement
• How are re-engagement centers mobilizing pandemic recovery efforts around dropout recovery, reconnecting disconnected youth, and shifting to in-person programming? What best practices have emerged around community partnerships, outreach, retention and student success?

• Made by Youth
  • This category is for youth-led and/or designed sessions
  • What ideas and demands are at top of mind for today’s youth? What are some ideas youth have for reaching other youth, programming, barriers, supports needed? What are some programs or projects led by youth in the field that are working? 

Proposals can fit in mutliple sessions strands and can be edited at anytime before the proposal deadline. All proposals must be received by October 22nd 2021.