Year Up is a national non-profit organization, operating in more than 30 sites across the country. Year Up was founded in 2000 in Boston. To date, they have served over 36,000 students across the country, as they strive to close the Opportunity Divide. It is estimated that there are over 6 million disconnected young adults in our country. These young adults have the drive to reach their full potential but lack access to the resources that will enable them to do so. These adults, the Opportunity Youth, reside on one side of the Divide. On the other side are Fortune 1000 companies, that will have an estimated 12 million jobs nationally to fill in the next decade. These companies need access to skilled, trained, and diverse individuals to meet their workforce needs.
They have established relationships with more than 100 employer partners around the country. Their graduates have consistently met the Year Up measures of success: 75% retention, 80% positive outcomes (employed full-time or enrolled in college full-time within four months of graduation), and average starting wage of $44,000/year.
Partnering with The Lynch Foundation
The Lynch Foundation is proud to have supported Year Up in its incredibly initial stages, starting with a significant investment in 2003. Over the years Lynch has provided critical support during both growth and expansion stages as well as expansion to create new alternative career track options.
An explicit approach to solving the opportunity gap is one of the key strategies of The Lynch Foundation, as the cornerstone of Year Up’s work, it made for a natural, long-term partnership.
The Foundation’s provided support over two decades has ensured:
- Year Up provides career and postsecondary pathways to young adults in Boston who have traditionally lacked the resources that would empower them to reach their full potential.
- Year Up scale and serve more students and develop innovative, market-responsive curriculum to meet the identified needs of their employer partners. And explore market-responsive curriculum tracks with their employer partners, and jointly design curriculum that will prepare students to directly fill identified skills-gap challenges experienced by local employers.
- Year Up continues to strengthen relationships with local area postsecondary education providers, to ensure that Year Up earned credits are fully transferable. This work directly aligns with their mission, as they continue to support Year Up graduates who wish to pursue their higher education degrees.