129
are experiencing low economic growth and high
unemployment (SDG 8), as well as major shortfalls in gender equality (SDG 5). This includes
the United States, and the Metropolitan Statistical
Areas that include American cities (SDSN 2017).
Efforts to deploy youth-focused employment
strategies which include trainings, supports, and
skills development like the YSE multi-indicator/
multi-sector model may help to contribute both to
a fuller SDG dashboard and the data needed to
inform local and regional policy.
Minnesota teens and young adults, in the Twin
Cities metropolitan area, and in particular youth
from communities of color, or youth living in
low-income census tract areas, face the largest
disparities in the United States. These disparities
are dramatic: Minnesota is listed as having the
fourth lowest overall poverty rate in the country
at 10%. And yet, in 2017 and continued through
today it has a high overall rate of opportunity
youth
1
at 6.2% (Lewis 2019) with 27.1%,
American Indian youth, and 12.1% of Black
youth not in school or in work. Minnesota is also
listed as having the worst financial and economic
disparities in the country between white and
Black families landing in 51st place in a national
states survey. Three years later, Minnesota barely
moved from 51st place to 50th in a states survey
by The Wall Street Journal. These disparities and
the gaps between Black and white Labor Market
Participation Rate (LMPR) and the Employment
to Population Ratio (EPOP), which have been
tracked since 1972, reveal the need for a systemic
solution (Ajilore 2020). A call for a multi-indicator/multi-structured model is needed to address
the complexity of the issue.
In 2016, the Sundance Family Foundation
partnered with Wilder Research to engage a
cohort of youth-serving nonprofits that supported
Youth Social Entrepreneurship (YSE) programs
in a 36-month evaluation, capacity building, and
research study. Sundance defines YSE programs
as youth-designed, youth-led enterprises (i.e.,
1 Youth who are neither in school nor the workplace.
businesses or community social initiatives) that
include (1) social-emotional learning (SEL), (2)
community and cultural engagement, and (3) the
development of entrepreneurial thought, business, and work-readiness skills (Fig. 10.1). The
outcomes include increased youth personal
agency, enhanced social capital, and portable
skills with a path to twenty-first-century careers.
These youth-serving nonprofits typically have an
embedded enterprise: youth repair bicycles, build
boats, make cookies, sell recycled clothing, raise
and sell vegetables, or a combination of these
enterprises. While all nonprofits in this cohort
share this common model, few had been producing quantitative data that would support this
model as evidence-based.
The purpose of the study was to (1) grow the
capacity of YSE nonprofit programs, (2) conduct
evaluation, and (3) gather evidence of YSE model’s impact with youth. As part of the common
evaluation, Wilder Research implemented two
surveys for all programs: an existing survey from
the US Department of Labor for use by supervisors to capture youth’s work readiness abilities
and a newly developed survey focusing on youth
personal agency (Wilder 2019).
While conducting the study, the researchers
identified the indicators that matched the indicators of the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) and in particular
align with the SDG #8—Workforce Development.
The lessons learned over the 36 months of implementing common indicators across many different types of YSE programs will inform the
implementation and replication of the SDG’s
workforce indicators, and strategy 8.b.1 to create
a specific youth workforce development system
by nonprofits serving youth in other American
cities.
The benefit to the Twin Cities and other
American cities to develop a cohesive set of measurable indicators, such as SDGs, is that overall
improvements can be more successfully monitored and can be used to activate program or policy changes at a local or regional level.
10 How the Youth Social Entrepreneurship (YSE) Model Supports Implementation...
are experiencing low economic growth and high
unemployment (SDG 8), as well as major shortfalls in gender equality (SDG 5). This includes
the United States, and the Metropolitan Statistical
Areas that include American cities (SDSN 2017).
Efforts to deploy youth-focused employment
strategies which include trainings, supports, and
skills development like the YSE multi-indicator/
multi-sector model may help to contribute both to
a fuller SDG dashboard and the data needed to
inform local and regional policy.
Minnesota teens and young adults, in the Twin
Cities metropolitan area, and in particular youth
from communities of color, or youth living in
low-income census tract areas, face the largest
disparities in the United States. These disparities
are dramatic: Minnesota is listed as having the
fourth lowest overall poverty rate in the country
at 10%. And yet, in 2017 and continued through
today it has a high overall rate of opportunity
youth
1
at 6.2% (Lewis 2019) with 27.1%,
American Indian youth, and 12.1% of Black
youth not in school or in work. Minnesota is also
listed as having the worst financial and economic
disparities in the country between white and
Black families landing in 51st place in a national
states survey. Three years later, Minnesota barely
moved from 51st place to 50th in a states survey
by The Wall Street Journal. These disparities and
the gaps between Black and white Labor Market
Participation Rate (LMPR) and the Employment
to Population Ratio (EPOP), which have been
tracked since 1972, reveal the need for a systemic
solution (Ajilore 2020). A call for a multi-indicator/multi-structured model is needed to address
the complexity of the issue.
In 2016, the Sundance Family Foundation
partnered with Wilder Research to engage a
cohort of youth-serving nonprofits that supported
Youth Social Entrepreneurship (YSE) programs
in a 36-month evaluation, capacity building, and
research study. Sundance defines YSE programs
as youth-designed, youth-led enterprises (i.e.,
1 Youth who are neither in school nor the workplace.
businesses or community social initiatives) that
include (1) social-emotional learning (SEL), (2)
community and cultural engagement, and (3) the
development of entrepreneurial thought, business, and work-readiness skills (Fig. 10.1). The
outcomes include increased youth personal
agency, enhanced social capital, and portable
skills with a path to twenty-first-century careers.
These youth-serving nonprofits typically have an
embedded enterprise: youth repair bicycles, build
boats, make cookies, sell recycled clothing, raise
and sell vegetables, or a combination of these
enterprises. While all nonprofits in this cohort
share this common model, few had been producing quantitative data that would support this
model as evidence-based.
The purpose of the study was to (1) grow the
capacity of YSE nonprofit programs, (2) conduct
evaluation, and (3) gather evidence of YSE model’s impact with youth. As part of the common
evaluation, Wilder Research implemented two
surveys for all programs: an existing survey from
the US Department of Labor for use by supervisors to capture youth’s work readiness abilities
and a newly developed survey focusing on youth
personal agency (Wilder 2019).
While conducting the study, the researchers
identified the indicators that matched the indicators of the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) and in particular
align with the SDG #8—Workforce Development.
The lessons learned over the 36 months of implementing common indicators across many different types of YSE programs will inform the
implementation and replication of the SDG’s
workforce indicators, and strategy 8.b.1 to create
a specific youth workforce development system
by nonprofits serving youth in other American
cities.
The benefit to the Twin Cities and other
American cities to develop a cohesive set of measurable indicators, such as SDGs, is that overall
improvements can be more successfully monitored and can be used to activate program or policy changes at a local or regional level.
10 How the Youth Social Entrepreneurship (YSE) Model Supports Implementation...