Youthentity

In the context of our mission that youth are both money smart and career ready, we are aiming to accomplish the following with our programs through our three pathways from our Theory of Change:

Career Pathway:
Growing evidence suggests that choosing a specific degree pathway early in students’ academic careers can help ensure they complete their post-secondary education. At Youthentity, we have experienced this first-hand with our students. Research also shows that engagement in school declines yearly between 5th and 12th grades. As early as 5th grade, students participate in a variety of mini- internships where they receive hands-on experience in several career areas. During high school, we offer intensive career development programs working directly with industry professionals. Students can receive industry certifications and college credit before graduating from high school.

Life Plan Pathway:
Through assessments that support our Career Pathways programming, students learn about their personalities and “superpowers” and how this knowledge supports career exploration, selection, and satisfaction. The ultimate outcome is students successfully combine their career and industry experience with personal financial literacy knowledge to develop a life plan for their first 5 years after high school graduation. This way, students make informed decisions about the costs and benefits of several career path options of interest to them so that they can make an informed decision about their next steps, chasing their dreams with determination and clarity.

Financial Literacy Pathway: Regardless of one’s post-secondary education and work experience, financial illiteracy is prevalent in our society and harms our community. For people under 30, student debt is their #1 liability. Student loans are now the second-highest household liability.
Student debt is the most common form of consumer debt to become delinquent. Nearly 60% of American households are technically insolvent and adding to their debt each year; 50% of Americans wouldn’t be able to come up with $2,000 in 30 days. Our three programs address healthy financial behaviors such as saving, budgeting, and financing post- secondary education in the context of informed decision-making and return on investment.

Our long-term outcomes are: The pathways culminate in these long-term outcomes: students complete post-secondary education on time instead of 150% time; students do not take on more student debt than is reasonable given their career choice and projected future earnings; all students enrolled in our Career Academy compete high school with college credit and/or industry certifications compared to the state average 3.4%; students begin their adult life with a sound budget which includes healthy habits such as paying themselves first to fund their savings and investing initiatives and paying their credit cards in full each month.

From 2015 to 2020 our annual revenue grew from $423K to $671K, an average of 12% per year, and the number of students served grew from 1,400 in 2015 to 3,451 in 2019, an average of 37% growth per year; this academic year we expect to serve over 5,000 students. Participation numbers dropped in 2020 due to the COVID-19 shutdown and its impact on high school instruction. We project this academic year to serve over 5,000 students. For 2021-2024, we must grow annual revenue from $808,677 to over $1,234,000 to fund additions to the reserve at 10% of income and allocate $50,000 per year for staffing additions. 1-2 additional FTE’s will be needed.
For the next four years, our personal financial literacy programs will serve the most youth. We will emphasize expanding our 5th and 8th-grade programs. We continue to work on creating a sustainable growth model based on self-facilitation by teachers in addition to our current model of sending paid facilitators to schools. We also introduced an online curriculum for remote learning.
We will evaluate shifting our career exposure program (Jr. Career Academy) for middle school students to 9th or 10th graders and expanding our intensive career development programs for high school students. In Career Academy for high school students, we continue to build credentials such as concurrent enrollment and industry certificates. A new component of career planning and financial literacy is our 5-year life plan, a comprehensive tool to help students plan their next steps including the financial pros and cons of additional education compared to future income projections based on the careers they are interested in. We see the potential for the 5-year life plan to become a self-standing offering across the community.
Our marketing and branding efforts will be targeted toward increased community awareness and understanding including positioning YE as a community capacity builder in the areas of personal financial literacy and career development including matriculation of youth to college, certificate programs, or the workforce. Through career development, we can contribute to building community and economic development. Internally our organization is built around enterprises, giving everyone the opportunity and responsibility to participate in fundraising.
At YE we are fortunate to have built many organizational strengths such as our quality of programming, quality and professionalism of staff and our board, and our efficiency and entrepreneurial attitude. For many years we have decreased our cost-to-serve which continues to be well below other youth programs in the valley; going forward we must grow revenues to serve more youth and add staffing for longer-term capacity building. During the plan period, we will continue to increase our awareness profile in the communities we serve with students, parents, and employers.

From our SWOT analysis, our key capabilities are as follows:

• Highly effective and efficient entrepreneurial organization
• Quality and professionalism of our staff
• Quality of programs for both career and personal financial literacy
• An adaptive and flexible organization that focuses on community needs and fills them; actively restructures as needed to meet its objectives
• Track record of success
• Volume growth (students served) and cost-to-serve
• Volunteerism
• Foundation grant funding
• Forming mutually beneficial partnerships with colleges and industry associations

The Youthentity Story: History, Evolution, Changes

Youthentity was founded in 2001 as the Computers for Kids Foundation to bridge the digital divide by providing computers and low-cost internet access to families in the Roaring Fork Valley to support students in their education. We began our journey into experiential learning in 2006 with our first “Build Your Own” workshop with students teaching other kids how to build their own desktop computers. In 2009, we changed our name to Youthentity to reflect our growing breadth of programming: real-life learning experiences in the areas of financial knowledge, business, and technology. In 2010, our computer refurbishment program ended. We changed course by increasing partnering with school districts, Alpine Bank, volunteers, and business members on a greater level to increase our impact in youth development in the areas of career development and financial literacy. In 2014, we expanded our financial literacy programming beyond the Roaring Fork Valley. We have also built a variety of opportunities for youth to explore and prepare for future jobs and careers while they develop their character, leadership skills, and social capital.

What We Do

Youthentity provides personal financial literacy workshops for 5th & 8th graders and high school students, career exposure programs for elementary and middle school students, and career development programs for high school students serving over 5,200 students per year. Currently, we have a presence across the state of Colorado with our personal financial literacy program for youth.

What Makes Us Different

According to our alumni, the key areas where Youthentity is different include student commitment, demonstrating and providing career pathways, and adult support. Youthentity is the only career development program held during the school day that requires a large commitment on the part of the high school student. Because our programs take place off school property, the students get an experience of what it is like to commute to and from work. Because our programs are interest-based, we do not target segments of the youth population based on ethnicity, socio-economic status, or grade point average. This provides students with a peer group beyond existing friendships as found in the workplace.

The second area where Youthentity stands out is our ability to demonstrate and provide career pathways to high school students. Our programs provide exposure to and experience with a variety of opportunities that can lead to meaningful careers without moving out of the valley. More and more we are demonstrating to youth that college isn’t the only option for a path to success, empowering them to take ownership of their lives and be proud of their chosen pursuit.

Awards

Outstanding Colorado Not for Profit, El Pomar Foundation
Commendation from Colorado State Senate for service to the state