Some good news

Year Up is an organization that has been around for twelve years helping low-income urban teenagers find good jobs. Here are some of its accomplishments, as seen by its founder: "80 percent of Year Up’s graduates are employed or in school full time within four months of completing the program. Employed graduates average about $15 an hour, more than double the minimum wage, and experts estimate that spending 12 months at Year Up will increase graduates’ lifetime earnings by $1 million."

The organization is active in cities from Boston to San Francisco.  Boston started out with 20 students, now it serves 200 every year.  The program does have high expectations for its students.  For example, being late for class could mean loss of $20 from the student's daily stipend of $30.   During the first six months of the program, they learn attitudinal, behavior, and communication skills, and the second part is learning technical or financial skills.

YearUp has placed graduates is over 250 companies across the country.  Many of the companies are household names - Google, eBay, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Coca-Cola.