The Youth Employment Partnership, Inc.

The mission of The Youth Employment Partnership is to improve the employment and education outcomes for Oakland youth and young adults (ages 16-24) impacted by poverty, foster care, the criminal justice system, school underachievement, and other barriers to work. YEP provides life coaching, critical skill building, comprehensive education support and work experience. We believe that all young people deserve a chance at success. We also believe that young people are the key to creating a thriving community. Since 1973, YEP has trained more than 26,000 high school youth and 10,000 young adults. We have become a workforce development and education provider recognized not only locally but also by public systems leaders at the state and national level for our preeminent youth employment programming, and in particular, our ability to support youth and young adults with barriers in their journey to reaching their potential through excellent education and employment outcomes.

In addition to our nationally recognized job readiness training program and vocational training, our organization has an unwavering commitment to secondary and postsecondary education as we recognize the undeniable impact that education has on future earning potential and career options. We provide on-site tutoring for high school credit recovery, onsite adult high school, and basic skill remediation. As part of our overall strategy to improve the employability of all the young people we work with, we currently operate three social enterprises: a residential construction business, a commercial kitchen catering for homeless communities, and a cafe in the Juvenile Justice Center. Through these social enterprises and partnerships we have with businesses who host our interns, we are able to extend our engagement with the young adults in our program and deepen their work experience in high demand job sectors such as construction, customer service, and warehousing and distribution.