Key Facts About the Inequalities Our Youth Are Facing

In the areas of education, income, unemployment and criminal justice there are important disparities between National or New York City data and those of the areas in which Global Potential works. They also point out significant gaps regarding the race/ethnicity and gender:

1) New York City has a high school dropout rate of 12.6% whereas the national rate is of 9.3%. In the Bronx, it reaches 14%¹.

2) The high school dropout rate is the highest among Hispanics – 19.1% in New York City public high schools while it is only 9.3% among Whites1.

3) The high school completion rate of New York City (51.4%) is lower than the national rate (55.3%) and inequalities between races can be noticed: only 45.1% of Hispanic students graduate in Brooklyn.

4) The average income rate is the lowest among Hispanics – $16,800 compared to $44,300 among Whites. This average rate is always lower among females than males².

5) The unemployment rate of African-Americans 16 to 24 years old drops from 32.2% to 20.8% when they complete high school and to 8.8% when they graduate from college³.

6) Between 2000 and 2008 in New York City, the median per capita income decreased by 54.4% among Hispanics⁴.

7) African-Americans and Hispanics comprise 95% of the youth entering New York City detention, while they comprise only 65.3% of all youth of the city.

8) 86% of New York City’s children living with HIV/AIDS are black or Hispanics.

9) In 2006, 28.7% of the arrests of youth under 20 years old in New York City occurred in Brooklyn.

How Global Potential Can Impact On These Inequalities

Global Potential is not a traditional youth summer program, because it targets youth from disadvantaged communities who are too rarely given the opportunity to take leadership actions. We understand the specific problems they are facing and are aware of how graduating will impact most aspects of their future. Thus, we help our students to develop the skills, confidence, and commitment to complete high school and enroll in college.

The trips to the Dominican Republic/Nicaragua are beneficial for both the students and their host communities: the youth conduct work in poor rural communities that will increase the assets and resources of the inhabitants, but they will also reflect on issues such as what is poverty and experience being able to help instead of being helped. On their return home, they will learn how to identify issues affecting their own communities and personal lives, and take initiatives and build or join projects to solve them.

[1] Keeping Track of New York City’s Children, 2008, Citizens Committee for Children.

[2] Source: US Census Bureau, Survey of Income and Program Participation, 2004 Panel.

[3] Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Office of Employment and Unemployment Statistics.

[4]

State of the Urban Youth 2010 - 2011 Report Launched

The world today is younger than it has ever been, with half of the global population under the age of 25, and the majority of those living and growing up in cities and slums. This “youth bulge” defines one of the great challenges of the 21st century, this being how do governments at all levels overcome this urban divide, a divide where youth are finding themselves marginalized and excluded?

The State of the Urban Youth 2010-2011 report uniquely focuses on calling for the global community to level the playing field for urban youth. In this report UN-HABITAT focuses on youth exclusion from opportunities in urban areas, with the report imploring that now is the time to provide targeted programmes for urban youth so as to assure their equal access to opportunities. This report is based on a survey on youth opportunity and inequality given in four rapidly urbanizing cities: Rio de Janeiro, Mumbai, Kingston, Nairobi and Lagos.

The findings of the survey suggest that young people have unequal access to basic services such as housing, education and employment, which leads to the youth not being able to have meaningful work or study.

The report suggests that inequality in earnings and assets are related to the unequal opportunities that youth face throughout their lives. Education was found to be the key determinant of equal opportunity. Other factors which affected this opportunity were: predetermined circumstances beyond the youths control such as gender, race, ethnicity, education level of parents, disability and region of birth; family resources such as childhood residence and access to basic services and a secure shelter could effect the mental and physical growth of a child, which in turn could limit their social, economic and cultural networks; intergenerational inequalities, where parents who are educated are more willing to invest in their offspring’s education and place high expectations on them receiving good results; and gender disparities in education which lead to unequal opportunities in later life.

"Kids like us don't normally help out in other countries!” Using youth-centered capacity building initiatives to foster local and international development

Economic downturns have a direct impact on social life, creating unemployment, increasing criminal behaviors and decreasing social support and networks (Auslander & Litwin, 2001). One of the most vulnerable groups during economic downturns is the urban minority youth (Winchester, 2008), disproportionately affected by the 2008-2009 socio-economic crisis and global financial collapse. One positive result of this crisis is that it created room for creative solutions, calling for original social interventions and policies to protect vulnerable groups and foster entrepreneurship (Lustig & Stern, 2000; Schramm, 2009). Disconnected urban youth need skills to be empowered and create positive change in their lives, neighborhoods, and global community. Thus, they create social mobility pathways and social networks (Robb, 2000).

Founded in 2007, Global Potential (GP) is an original volunteer-run grassroots program aiming to give a voice to the poor and build community capacity and youth leadership. GP pairs New York City low-income youth groups with poor youth in rural villages of developing countries. Local schools and community programs are sought out to identify and recruit “high-potential” youth from low-income communities. These youth then participate in a three-stage program: (a) an intensive 16-week training on social entrepreneurship and leadership; (b) a 6-week immersion program of capacity building and peer mentoring in rural development projects in a developing country, and © upon return, a 9-month social enterprise application in their own low-income neighborhoods.

GP carries out innovative youth survey data. To date, the positive impact on quality of life indicators (self-esteem, leadership, increased awareness) has been monitored on 50 youth from NYC and 150 youth from the Dominican Republic; experiences of poverty are contextualized. The preliminary findings from this data show that industrialized and developing countries can work coherently to create alternative youth-centered development models. There are many implications for future directions in policy and program development.