Program areas at New Orleans Youth Alliance
New Orleans Youth Alliance Reengagement Center continues to work to reconnect youth 16-24 who are disconnected from work and school. NOYA successfully reduced the disconnection rate by 5% accross the work of our collaborative. The REC provided outreach, engagement, and services totaling over 900 service hours to 247 young people. We successfully reconnected and prevented the disconnection of 92 young people to postsecondary education. The Functional Zero Opportunity Youth collaborative was expanded to 18 members, including workforce develop- ment leaders like JOB1 and Ochsner Healthcare. With Children's Bureau of New Orleans, we co-designed a Mental Health Community Worker path- way to increase metal health assistance.
Our Youth Leadership Fellowship is increasing youth leadership, power, and voice in the decisions that affect them. Our fellows have created and distributed a policy platform called, Rebuilding Our Village NOLA. We have persuaded more than 30 organizations to support the platform. Since our last report, fellows used the platform to guide their decisions as they piloted a youth-led grant program, which we will expand next year. In their pilot, fellows awarded $40,000 to nine organizations, All 22 of our fellowhsip alumni have graduated high school, 10 have at least some college and another 9 have attained a college degree. Fellows reported significant growth personally and with confidence, community engagement and professional developmet.
The New Orleans Youth Alliance Youth Fellowship Program worked with New Orleans youth development organizations take part in our YPQI assessments to evaluate and improve their programs. Assessments measure four aspects of programming: Safe, Environment, Supportive Environment, Interaction, and Engagement. These domains roughly mirror Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, with Safe Environment equating to physiological needs and Engagement being similar to self- actuali- zation. Last year, YPQI partners saw a 10% increase in Engagement scores, which is significant. Youth organizations here are beating national averages in Engagement,and we have achieved our highest En- gagement scores as a network ever.