Leveraging Statewide Partnerships to Drive Educational Outcomes Live United Voices of JAG

Jobs for America’s Graduates A life changing dropout prevention and recovery program that is customized to fit the needs of our nation’s most disadvantaged young people. One of the largest and most successful school-to-work systems for at-risk and disadvantaged young people in the United States. Incepted in 1980 – serving its 1,000,000 th student across 31 states.

Jobs for America’s Graduates JAG’s performance outcomes for at-risk youth populations in 2013 are truly compelling: - A 91% graduation rate in the nearly 1,000 classrooms where JAG operates, from the most rural to the most urban. - Doubling the rate of employment for poor and disadvantaged youth and tripling the rate of full-time employment compared to their counterparts. - Doubling the rate of enrollments in higher education for this population, almost entirely first-generation college students.

Jobs for America’s Graduates National Network

Jobs for Michigan’s Graduates Michigan’s high school graduation rate is steadily lower than national average with districts like Detroit Public Schools rating even lower. The slight graduation rate increase to 76% in 2012 continues to place Michigan in the bottom third of all states. Jobs for Michigan’s Graduates launched in 2008 in Southwest Michigan through partnerships with Whirlpool Corporation and United Way of Southwest Michigan. Targeted lowest performing district.

Jobs for Michigan’s Graduates: Our Model Classroom Instruction Competency-Based Curriculum Adult Mentoring Advisement and Support Summer Employment Training Student-Led Leadership Development & Service Learning Job and Post-secondary Education Placement Follow-up Services Accountability System

Jobs for Michigan’s Graduates: Results This year, 94% (263 out of 279) of freshman through junior year JMG participants from 2013 – 2014 returned to school in Fall This represents $1,907,103 in state funding returning to Michigan school districts. Preliminary data shows that JMG alumni from the class of 2014 have achieved the following results: 96% high school graduation rate 84% experiencing a positive outcome, inclusive of: employment, post-secondary enrollment, or military 42% full-time jobs rate 70% full-time outcomes rate 72% full-time placement rate 52% further education rate 96% 84%

National Opportunity Summit In February 2015, JAG National joined with United Way Worldwide as co-conveners of the National Opportunity Summit in Washington, D.C. First event of its kind, included businesses, nonprofits, and other organizations to address urgent issues of youth employment, skills training, meaningful education and career pathways at both the state and federal levels.

National Opportunity Summit “Ensuring young people get workforce experience is critical to our nation’s ability to close the skills gap. There are many great examples of business engagement with this group but they are simply too few and far between. We need to identify the key elements of successful programs—both for the young person and the employer— and bring those to scale.” –U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation President, Jon R. McKernan Jr.

United Way: Impacting the Achievement Gap “United Way has put a stake in the ground: the number of high school dropouts must be cut in half by With our network of 1,276 state and local United Ways and our national, state and local partners, we seek to mobilize the country around better educational opportunities and outcomes for our children.” -United Way Education Research Overview, April 2011

United Way: Impacting the Achievement Gap United Ways are uniquely positioned to make a difference, bringing assets in three critical areas that can help fuel educational improvement: 1. A national network with demonstrated success in mobilizing communities to change lives; 2. A diverse array of national, state and local partners with knowledge, expertise, resources and tools for change; 3. Public engagement capacity, connecting with individuals and organizations to give, advocate and volunteer.

Economic Benefits of a High School Diploma Find at least one other person from your state in the room. Discuss the following (5 minutes): –Imagine the various ways life in your state might improve if you collectively focused on only one result: improving the high school graduation rate. –What economic benefits would your state enjoy as a result of graduating more students? –What United Way impact areas are directly or indirectly tied to this outcome? –Why is collective action a crucial component of driving this result?

Economic Benefits of Increasing Graduation Rate

| | Kristin Harrington, Director