Promises to Keep- Disconnected Youth Task Force

In January of 2021, New York City’s Disconnected Youth Task Force released a report focused on out-of-school, out-of-work (OSOW) youths between the ages of 16-24. Both the Task Force and the report have been the focus of praise and criticism since their conception in 2017. However, the purpose behind these initiatives has become more relevant than ever with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. According to JobsFirstNYC, within the first few months of the pandemic, the number of OSOW youth in New York City nearly doubled from 129,000 to between 259,00 and 324,000. 

The Report 

The Disconnected Youth Task Force’s report paints a bleak picture of the present and future of New York’s youth. In 2018, the Task Force found that 1 in 8 youth qualified as OSOW. However, this year the number of disconnected youth has risen to 1 in 4. OSOW youth are primarily Black and Latinx, and are disproportionately represented in low-income areas, with the Bronx accounting for the largest portion. 

In an op-ed in the Gotham Gazette, Deputy Mayor and Chairman of the Disconnected Youth Task Force J. Phillip Thomson wrote that “young adults who held jobs before COVID-19 are disproportionately likely to have fallen out of work in the months since then, as the economic sectors most likely to employ them—food service, hospitality, retail—have been among the hardest hit.” The report goes on to state that OSOW youths most often experience decreased earnings, reduced homeownership rates, and worse health later in life in comparison to

other groups. If New York City fails to address its disconnected youth crisis, then it endangers the long-term standard and quality of life for hundreds of thousands of young people. 

The Administration 

In his op-ed, Thomson claims that the De Blasio administration’s “highest priority” has been to make New York the most ”equitable big city in America.” Furthermore, Thomson says this goal begins with providing young people “access to high quality educational and developmental opportunities that can put them on a path to career readiness, economic security, and fully engaged citizenship.” 

However, Mayor De Blasio’s record with disconnected youth and initiatives associated with youth poverty has become spotty in recent years. When the task force was initially created in 2017, its 25 members were supposed to be appointed within 30 days. The intent of the task force was to create a report by March 1st, 2018. However, it wasn’t until two years later in 2019 that Mayor De Blasio officially launched the task force with only 20 employees. It was only in January 2021 that the task force completed its report, almost three years behind schedule. 

OSOW Solutions 

Although Mayor De Blasio launched a series of initiatives and programs to combat the issue of disconnected youth, many advocates, particularly young people, are calling for more jobs and college assistance. Among the city’s efforts to help OSOW youth including reviving the Summer Youth Employment Program, an effort to support students who have been accepted to CUNY but haven’t matriculated, and a redesign of the Work, Learn, & Grow Program. 

Teens Take Charge is a youth activist group that is campaigning to make every young New Yorker eligible for the summer employment program. Carmen Lopez Villamil, an organizer with the group stated in an interview with the Gothamist that “last year, over 100,000 people were rejected from the Summer Youth Employment Program, which means that they had nothing to do, presumably sitting in their houses, isolated, without …any contact with other people and without any financial support.” Although the city is renewing efforts to solve the OSOW crisis, many advocates fear that it isn’t enough to make a meaningful difference. 

People under 18 make up more than 20% of the city- and ensuring a secure economic and domestic environment for the young people of New York City is essential not only to their future success, but the betterment of the city. If, as the old saying goes, the youth are our future, we must demand more of our elected officials to make young New Yorkers a priority and make good on their promises to invest in the quality of life of NYC youths.