In the wake of the Great Recession of 2008, thousands of young people attempted to enter the workforce and were hit with the startling realization that there were simply weren’t enough jobs to go around. The national unemployment rate had pushed into double digits for the first time in 25 years and there was stiff competition even for low-wage and low-skilled jobs. The rising number of 16- to 24-year-olds who were out of school and out of work became a major point of concern for economists, workforce development professionals, politicians, parents, and the so-called disconnected youth themselves.
Nonprofits leapt into action, government programs were established, and millions of dollars were invested into ‘reconnection projects’ that would get those disconnected youth back on the track toward successful, prosperous adulthood. The economy bounced back and today the rates of disconnected youth are lower than they were before the recession.
From this summary, the issue would seem to be under control. Yet one major problem remains: the number of disconnected youth in rural America is still growing.
Nationwide today, around twelve percent of people ages 16 to 24 qualify as disconnected youth, meaning that they’re neither working nor attending school. In rural America, however, the rate is nearly 20 percent. That’s millions of young people seemingly failing the important transition from childhood into successful adulthood, responsibility, and independence.
One reason for this is that disconnected youth have historically been thought of as an urban problem, so most funding for reconnection programs went to large cities. This, paired with the fact that urban jobs bounced back from the 2008 recession in a way that rural jobs haven’t, resulted in a change in the trends. Twenty years ago, youth in urban areas were 36 percent more likely to be disconnected than youth in rural areas. For the past five years, however, the number of rural disconnected youth has exceeded urban by at least three percentage points. Mason County and Lewis County both teeter around the 25 percent mark; around one in four youth here are neither working nor studying. Meanwhile the 5th Congressional District (Southeastern Kentucky) has the second highest disconnected youth rate in the entire nation.
These young people’s unemployment and lack of educational attainment, and the poverty that goes along with those factors, are linked to depression, anxiety, and poor physical health – all of which make it even more difficult for them to break the cycle by returning to school or joining the workforce. To quote Sarah Burd-Sharps and Kristin Lewis of Measure of America, “The effects of youth disconnection — limited education, social exclusion, lack of work experience, and fewer opportunities to develop mentors and valuable work connections — can have long-term consequences that snowball across the life course, eventually influencing everything from earnings and self-sufficiency to physical and mental health and marital prospects.”
The good news is that our community is stepping up to the challenge. One example is the Kentucky Department of Education’s Operation Preparation each March, when community members advise middle schoolers and high schoolers on career-planning. The program is impressive not only because of its focus on goal-setting but also because it gives students an opportunity to present themselves as professionals and interact with adults who aren’t their teachers or parents. Another exciting initiative is the free summer program Maysville Community & Technical College is developing to help out-of-school youth hone their employability skills while exploring different professions.
These programs complement our community’s existing offerings like GED-testing scholarships, a focus on soft skills, and an ever-growing number of opportunities for employers to engage with students throughout their studies. Partnerships like those described above are examples of creative thinking that help prevent young people from dropping out of school in the first place, or get them back on-track if they’ve gotten lost on their academic or employment journey. With luck, the investment of time and interest from community members like us, and some perseverance, we will benefit from the same positive youth engagement trends that have benefitted our urban neighbors.
