Navigating the transition from high school to adulthood is a challenging process that a significant number of young Americans fail to complete successfully, especially those in low-income households. Virtually all jobs that offer wages high enough to support a family require at least some education beyond high school, and yet nationally, only 60 percent of America’s low-income complete the twelfth grade. This reality is compounded by the increasingly siloed approach to serving young people that does not recognize that most pursue education and employment concurrently.

In this context, the Pathways Fund seeks to grow critical interventions in youth development that can improve high school completion rates, increase college enrollment and persistence, and better prepare youth to enter the workforce. Through the Pathways Fund innovative nonprofit organizations will create new proof points that link education and workforce development efforts to serve as the basis for major social reforms in youth development, providing evidence that low-income youth, when given the right set of supports, can succeed in college and find productive work. These organizations will deepen their impact in existing locations and collectively replicate to several new cities in the next five years, reaching areas of the country that have not yet benefited from their innovative programs.

The Pathways Fund is made possible through a grant from the federal Social Innovation Fund, administered by The Corporation for National and Community Service, and through a collaborative partnership between Blue Ridge Foundation New York, Open Society Foundations, Robin Hood Foundation, SeaChange Capital Partners, and New Profit Inc.