By Matthew Cimitile, University Communications and Marketing
More than 12 percent of young people aged 15 to 24 in Pinellas County are no longer in school and not actively working, according to a recent State of the Region-Tampa Bay report.
A new collaboration between Keys Consulting Firm and the University of South Florida, working with local organizations Mitchem Services and A Griot’s Corner, will connect with disengaged youth to establish better pathways into the local workforce.
“Being born and raised here, I want to make sure all of our youth have opportunities to succeed, and for some that means reaching out and ensuring they feel connected to their city and the growth that is happening,” said LaShante Keys, CEO of Keys Consulting Firm. “By mobilizing this population, it will not only bring about economic impact, but instill pride in how they feel about themselves and their city.”
The group recently received a $200,000 grant from the city of St. Petersburg. The collaboration, which involves USF St. Petersburg Sociology Professors Frank Biafora and Byron Miller, and Education Professor LaSonya Moore, will seek to better understand this population’s lived experiences.
“We hope to answer what is causing this large segment of the region's population to disengage and what are the prospects of getting them re-engaged,” Biafora said. “This grant will allow us to meet these kids and young adults where they are, understand their mindset and level of disengagement, and start to pinpoint that disconnection,”
The project team will put together an advisory board of education advocates, business leaders, clergy, school officials and parents to provide valuable input into the process and hear their perspectives on youth development. The advisory board will include several young people who went through a disengaged to re-engaged process, so the team can learn from their experiences.
The project team will also engage with Pinellas County Schools, specifically with students who have been identified by the school system at a high risk of dropping out. They plan to survey more than 350 students to solicit information on a wide range of risk factors that are contributing to their disengagement.
“We want to better understand the life journey of these young people and what led to their decisions. Was it boredom, was it opportunities elsewhere, was it not seeing a future that led them to back out of formal structured systems such as school?” Biafora said.
While USF St. Petersburg researchers work in the school system, Keys Consulting Firm will conduct focus groups and interviews with this population in the community. A unique part of the collaboration will be the power of storytelling overseen by A Griot’s Corner, who will develop around 100 stories from the personal journeys of disengaged youth to better highlight shared experiences and uncover insights into challenges and aspirations.
All this work will inform strategies for re-engagement that the team will provide the city of St. Petersburg at the project’s end, with the goal of empowering disengaged youth, strengthening local networks and establishing pathways back into schools and workforce development.
“We hope that by creating these strategies, we will develop opportunities for all youth in our city,” Keys said. “That they will feel better about themselves and change their trajectory that will lead to greater education, training and long-term employment.”