UNITED WAY’S GLOBAL STRATEGY:

YOUTH SUCCESSUnitedWay.org

CHANGING A NATION:

HEALTHGood health is essential for success—for an individual, and for a community as a whole.

Healthy people are more likely to perform well in school and the workplace. Healthy communities produce a stronger workforce, thriving business and a strong economy that improves everyone’s quality of life.

United Way works to expand access to quality healthcare, promote healthy behavior and remove barriers to eating healthy and staying active.

By reducing childhood obesity and preventive illnesses, we enable people to live longer and live better—while cutting everyone’s healthcare costs in the process.

Consider just a few examples of how United Way is driving lasting change through improved health.

The goal of United Way’s youth success strategy is to ensure that:

• Youth gain the knowledge, skills, and credentials needed to obtain a job that can sustain a family

Our strategy for youth success includes three key areas:

• Wrap-Around Supports: Providing systemic wrap-around supports to drive youth success in school (e.g., expanding access to afterschool and summer learning programs, tutoring, mentoring, post-secondary access and completion assistance)

• A Path to Success After School: Preparing youth for transition into employment with career exploration, soft skills development, job training, internships, and volunteer experiences.

• Family Engagement: Engaging families of struggling students and connecting them to the information, resources, and tools they need to support their children ( “community schools” that offer services beyond educating the child—like financial education for the parents and medical care for the whole family).

Youth suffer disproportionately from unemployment. In 2014, more than 73 million youth (ages 15–24) around the world were unemployed. Today, the youth unemployment rate is nearly three times higher than that of adults.

What’s needed is a true “cradle-to-career” continuum: a talent pipeline that prepares the next generation for the jobs of tomorrow, supplies businesses with skilled workers and builds a robust, competitive economy.

We tailor solutions to address the particular needs and aspirations of each community we serve. Consider a few examples. . .

INCREASING THE HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION RATE In Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United Way’s Graduating Our Future initiative has yielded impressive results. At Parkland Magnet High School, the school that once had the lowest graduation rate in Winston-Salem, the graduation rate has increased from 66% to 83%, and the community at large has seen an increase from 71% to 85%.

Graduating Our Future has clearly demonstrated that increasing tutoring, family engagement, counseling and mentoring opportunities for at-risk students can make a real difference. Now United Way is taking these proven methods and expanding them to other schools.

AIRBUS FLYING CHALLENGE INSPIRES STUDENTS TO SUCCEED In 2010, United Way and the Airbus Corporate Foundation partnered to create the Airbus Flying Challenge, a tutoring and mentoring initiative focused on inspiring at-risk middle and high school students to stay in school, improve their grades and explore their career ambitions.

Starting in Toulouse, France, the initiative has expanded to Kansas, Alabama, Spain and Germany, where Airbus as a corporate presence. So far, more than 1,700 students have benefited from the Airbus Flying Challenge initiative.