Rising Together – Office of Workforce Development

Rising Together: Creating New Pathways to Employment for Youth and Young Adults Experiencing Homelessness is a coordinated effort among Boston’s lead agencies on youth homelessness to improve job outcomes for young people in need of stable housing. These lead organizations—along with partners from the public, private, and non-profit sectors—convene quarterly to collaboratively address challenges in identifying, training, and employing these youth and young adults. The project will culminate in a report highlighting the unique challenges and solutions that emerge at the intersection of workforce development and youth homelessness.

Rising Together was initially funded by a $75,000 grant awarded in May 2019 by Heartland Alliance’s National Center on Employment and Homelessness. Boston was one of seven communities nationwide to receive this Pathways Forward Challenge grant, . In January 2020, Rising Together also received a $250,000 grant from the Liberty Mutual Foundation to further support the project for the span of its two-and-a-half years.

Download the Rising Together fact sheet.

Our Mission: Rising Together is a community-driven, workforce development initiative that connects employers and service providers in Boston with youth and young adults at-risk of or experiencing homelessness in order to train, hire, retain, and advance the careers of these young Bostonians.

Why employment for youth/young adults experiencing homelessness?

Youth and young adults should be growing and thriving in Boston. Young people experiencing housing instability should be connected to the resources they need, including careers and jobs with opportunities for upward economic mobility. In 2019, Boston’s annual Homeless Census counted approximately 325 youth and young adults sleeping in shelters, transitional housing, or on the street. This number does not include young people who couch surf or “double up” with others in unstable housing situations. Moreover, minority groups make up a disproportionately large percentage of people experiencing homelessness and housing instability. This is in direct relation to the oppression experienced by these communities and is especially significant for LGBTQ+, Black, Latinx, and Native Americans.

Beginning in 2017, the City, the Boston Youth Action Board, and 280 community members participated in the initiative Rising to the Challenge to create a coordinated, community response plan to better support the well-being of youth and young adults experiencing homelessness. Mayor Walsh allocated $165,000 in technical assistance to support the initiative. Within two years, this coordinated, community response led to the launch of a comprehensive plan, Rising to the Challenge: A Plan to Prevent and End Youth & Young Adult Homelessness to address multiple sectors, including housing, health, education, and employment, with which youth and young adults interact. This work was bolstered in 2018 when the City was awarded $4.9 million toward the Plan’s implementation by the U.S. Office of Housing and Urban Development.

Rising Together is a community-driven initiative. It is informed by a Community Engagement Framework infused with an equity lens. Rising Together builds on the plan by coordinating Rising to the Challenge partners and bringing additional workforce development stakeholders into the conversation around employment solutions for our young people. This is incredibly important because meaningful and sustainable employment is key to housing stability and long-term success. Yet, less than half of 18-24-year-olds experiencing homelessness in Boston report active employment.

Join the effort

Is your organization interested in joining Rising Together? Click on the button below to receive updates on convenings, trainings, and more.

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Steering committee

Boston Private Industry Council, on behalf of the Opportunity Youth Collaborative
Boston Youth Action Board
Bridge Over Troubled Waters
Department of Neighborhood Development, City of Boston
Health & Human Services Cabinet, City of Boston
Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development
More Than Words
St. Francis House
United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley

Career resources for youth

The following videos and powerpoints are from the Virtual Career Opportunity Series of live online events that Rising Together & YOU Boston held for young people in Summer 2020.

COVID-19 resources

Weekly COVID-19 webinars
Point Source Youth is holding free webinars every Wednesday at 2pm on a variety of topics related to how COVID-19 affects efforts to end youth homelessness.

COVID-19 Stabilization Resources
The Boston Continuum of Care has listed crisis-specific resources on food, masks, medication, mental health, recovery support, and more.

Responses & Resources to COVID-19
Youth Collaboratory has compiled relevant resources for both youth and youth service providers.

An Equitable Systems Transformation Framework for COVID-19
The National Innovation Service has formulated equity-focused principles to guide youth service providers during the health crisis.