Our Piece of the Pie

Youth development - youth developments services focus on the building of healthy habits and skills that prepare youth to demonstrate and achieve competence, confidence, and connections to the community. Using cognitive behavioral support tools, skill acquisition strategies aimed at building resilience and reducing risk factors, including barrier identification and reduction, strengthening self-esteem and confidence while supporting youth when problems arise, connecting them to other support services, and improving positive networks through connecting with two or more adults in the community.

Education - education services are provided through district-aligned, diploma granting public school partnerships that include opportunity academy and the learning academy bloomfield. Additional academic services and supports are provided targeting access to industry recognized credentials, and post-secondary bridging. the focus is supporting academic pathways that lead to educational achievement diploma/ged attainment and post-secondary credentialing and retention.

Employment - workforce readiness programs assist youth with opportunities to experience and develop important work readiness skills for long term employment. Skills building focused on career competency development training (soft skills, resume writing, job shadowing, service learning, entrepreneurial and business skills, subsidized/un-subsidized internships, employment placement, and employment retention.embedded are also financial capability services to help youth learn about banking, savings, credit, managing debt, and budgeting. Most importantly, youth have real-time access to a continuum of developmental work readiness experiences that include hands-on "work-to-learn" youth businesses in arts, digital media, carpentry, allied health, manufacturing, and other post-secondary credentialed employment opportunities. All of which offer youth the opportunity to learn occupational skills while building their resume.

Data and accountability opp incorporates best practices and uses real-time, integrated, youth-level data to ensure service quality and progression and agency-wide accountability for results. Data and information is accessible to staff and stakeholders for analysis supporting improved services, operations, policies and outcomes for youth in hartford. As a learning organization, opp also participates in various local, state, and national data collaboratives.

Behavioral health - opp has long recognized the connection between the impact of trauma, mental health and youth success. the covid pandemic disruptions have had profound impact on youth and experts have proclaimed that youth mental health is a public health crisis. Opp's experience shows that while services exist within the community, youth face significant obstacles to accessing appropriate, culturally-competent and effective mental health supports including logistical and financial barriers, lack of trained empathetic counselors or distrust of the unknown. Behavioral health provides opp the ability to refer youth to relationship and youth centered opp staff with appropriate clinical training within the agency will provide easier access to these needed services.