The 2024 NYEC Annual Forum is a national conference that brings together youth leaders, practitioners, policymakers, and stakeholders interested in advancing the lives of opportunity youth and young adults.

Participants will co-create a space for sharing best practices, innovative ideas, advocacy strategies, and practical solutions to common challenges. We will work together, across geographies and sectors, to  empower each other to transform ideas into action to serve disconnected youth and young adults.

Conference Tracks

1. Overcoming Barriers - Best Practices and Innovative Solutions for Common Hurdles to Youth Employment
   This track will address challenges faced by youth in marginalized and disadvantaged communities. It will focus on six key barriers: obtaining vital documents, homelessness, transportation, childcare, geographic barriers, and mental health services.
   
   
2. Working Better Together: Boosting Collaboration to Build Stronger Ecosystems
   In this track, participants will learn about the benefits and challenges of cooperating across multiple systems and will identify ways to break down silos and improve communication.  Areas of focus include: 1) the role of elected leaders, 2) working with the criminal justice system 3) serving youth experiencing homelessness 4) collaborating with the most important stakeholder group - young people. 
   
   
3. Increasing and Maintaining Your Impact: Elements of Effective, Long-Lasting Programs
   This track will highlight the components and practices of sustainable, high-quality, youth development programs. This includes practices at the organization-level, staff development and retention, and youth opportunities. Topics include best practices for professional development and staff wellness, grant writing and reporting, program monitoring and evaluation, and how to offer the most impactful youth opportunities (apprenticeships, internships, mentorship, etc.) and building program culture.
   
   
4. Intentional and Equitable Community Supports for Youth Subpopulations
   This track identifies the specific needs of sub populations, including justice-impacted youth, individuals following non-traditional pathways, people living with disabilities, LGBTQ+ youth, and survivors of trafficking.  Workshops will provide a space for exploring their unique challenges, discussing strategies for empowerment, and promoting inclusivity and equal opportunities. 
   
   
5. Policy Responses to a Changing Labor Market
   This track will focus on policies that can support Opportunity Youth as they adapt to our evolving labor market and how Federal investments are impacting these developments. Sessions will explore how policymakers are seeking to “reshore” supply chains, expand apprenticeships & work-based learning, work with (or against) AI and gig work, and increase economic mobility. The track will also explore how organizations and coalitions are impacting policy related to Opportunity Youth. 
   
   
6. Relentless Outreach: Strategies for Re-Engagement
   This track will focus on best practices when working to re-engage youth and young adults who have dropped out of high school or college. We will hear from organizations involved in re-engagement regarding their practices in identifying and reaching out to young adults who have dropped out of high school, as well as re-engaging them in their education. Additionally, we will hear from programs addressing the college stop-out crisis, with a particular emphasis on the community college system.  
   
   
7. Harnessing Data to Improve Outcomes for Young People
   This track will address the status of data in the workforce development field. Sessions will highlight the importance of having data that is complete, timely, and relevant to improving programming and outcomes. Participants will explore concrete ways to use data to improve programs and drive policy change, creative ways to track outcomes in real time, how to use fiscal mapping to understand funding flows in your community, and ways to leverage existing datasets to generate new findings.  
   
   

For more information contact: annualforum@nyec.org


*Click the schedule tab to learn more. Assigned workshop times are subject to change.