Year Up United is an American nonprofit organization focused on education and job skills. The organization provides students without a 4- year bachelor's degree with resources, training and corporate internships with the aim of improving their job prospects and social mobility.

Year Up United
Established2000; 24 years ago (2000)
FounderGerald Chertavian
Type501(c)(3) Nonprofit
Legal status501(c)(3)
PurposeEducation
HeadquartersBoston
Location
  • United States
Revenue (2022)
$179.3 million[1]
Students (2022[2])
4,000[2]
Websiteyearup.org

History

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The organization was founded in Boston in 2000 by Gerald Chertavian,[3] who worked as a banker on Wall Street and later co-founded a software company.[4]

In June 2002, Year Up United's first class of students graduated its one-year program.[5] The program had started in Boston in 2001 with 22 students.[6]

In 2011, Year Up United established a Puget Sound program, based in downtown Seattle.[3] It opened a program in Phoenix in 2014.[7]

As of 2020, the organization worked with more than 250 companies that provided funding for the program and took on interns.[8]

In 2021, the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation in the US Department of Health and Human Services (OPRE) published a report of a study it had sponsored, evaluating Year Up United's longer-term impact via a five-year randomized controlled trial. The study found that the Year Up United program had a statistically significant impact on earnings.[9] In 2022, the OPRE reported that six years after completing the Year Up United program, past participants had an income 30% higher than a control group of non-participants.[2]

As of 2022, approximately 4,000 students per year participated in Year Up United's programs.[2]

Programs

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Year Up United's program includes job skills training and internships in a corporate environment,[9] for underserved students who have a high school diploma or equivalent, but have not received a college degree.[2][10][4][11][12][13] As of 2024, the program was aimed at young people and accepted participants aged between 18 and 29 years old.[14]

The organization also runs a program providing materials and resources to other training providers working with students, including community colleges.[15]

Funding and partnerships

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The majority of funding for Year Up United is provided by its corporate partners.[9] Additional funding is provided by sponsorships, donations and public funding, the latter of which represented 2% of the organization's budget as of 2018.[16] In 2022, Google announced it was working with Year Up United and two other job training programs to provide funding and course content.[11] Also in 2022, Year Up United received a grant of $3 million from the private equity firm Blackstone Inc.[15]

References

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  1. ^ "Year Up 2022 Form 990" (PDF). YearUp.org. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  2. ^ a b c d e Lohr, Steve (2022-10-03). "These Job-Training Programs Work, and May Show Others the Way". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  3. ^ a b Soper, Taylor (2014-05-16). "Year Up: How this program transforms low-income young adults into rising tech stars". GeekWire. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  4. ^ a b Gralnick, Jodi (2016-02-24). "A year in this program offers path to success". CNBC. Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  5. ^ Levy, Doug (2002-06-20). "Year Up pays off for these grads". The Boston Herald. The program's first 20 students graduate today and, armed with their experiences, 14 have landed jobs that will pay them an average of $ 35,000 a year.
  6. ^ Johnson, Akila (2016-10-21). "Nonprofit seeks to fill skills gap of recent high school graduates". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2023-10-03.
  7. ^ Ringle, Hayley (2019-11-30). "Year Up expands into Mesa, seeking West Valley partner and campus". Phoenix Business Journal.
  8. ^ Epperson, Sharon (2020-06-05). "As black jobless rate soars, Year Up and partners Merck, Amazon and others offer career development". CNBC. Retrieved 2023-10-03.
  9. ^ a b c Fein, David; Dastrup, Samuel; Burnett, Kimberly (2021). Still Bridging the Opportunity Divide for Low-Income Youth: Year Up's Longer-Term Impacts (Report). Washington, D.C.: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
  10. ^ Heinrich, Carolyn (2012). "How does Year Up measure up?" (PDF). Focus. 29 (2).
  11. ^ a b Lohr, Steve (2022-02-17). "Google Creates $100 Million Fund for Skills Training Program". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-01-26.
  12. ^ "Year Up program opens up a new world in tech for students". The Seattle Times. 2014-11-20. Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  13. ^ Safer, Morley (2014-01-26). "60 Minutes: Jobs program aids Fortune 500 and underprivileged youth". CBS News. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  14. ^ "Become a Student | Student Eligibility | How to Apply". Year Up United. Retrieved 2024-09-12.
  15. ^ a b Chesto, John (2022-11-29). "Athenahealth likely to go public, again; Micho Spring bids farewell to Weber Shandwick; Year Up expands with gift from Blackstone; Symbotic dials up their old CEO; What's in a name for Allen & Gerritsen?". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  16. ^ Hagan, Allison (2018-08-04). "Year Up helping more young adult workers get a leg up". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2023-10-03.