Urban

A pandemic that disproportionately affected communities of color combined with the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 served as a stark reminder of the deep disparities in our country. From access to healthcare, to technology, education, and jobs, opportunity and prosperity is not equally distributed in our society. Many of our students have grown up in a world in which systemic racism in its many forms sends them a message of futility every day, a message that there is no point in dreaming, because your skin will speak for you.

At Urban Alliance, our team and our partners are fighting for racial equity every dayby ensuring that young Black and Brown students can access the training, social capital, and networks necessary to level the playing field in the world of work.We envision a world in which all young people, no matter who they are, where they come from, or what they look like, are able to dream, to reach their fullest potential, and to live the lives they deserve.

From day one of the pandemic, our goal was to keep our students earning and learning. 80% of our students rely on their paychecks to contribute to household expenses — and those paychecks became an even more critical source of income for their families as communities of color were hardest-hit by the healthcare and financial consequences of the virus. Many students also lacked access to the devices or connectivity needed for remote work and distance learning – in some regions, that number was as high as 1 in 3. We worked with partners including the Rock Family of Companies, the Rocket Community Fund, and the Coca-Cola Company to bridge that digital divide for students.

Employer by employer, we determined which students’ roles could easily convert to digital work and which students needed alternate options. 98% of students felt they still made a meaningful contribution to their job sites, despite working remotely. In all, we graduated over 450 interns from the Class of 2020 — all of whom continued to earn and learn through the end of the summer and who were connected to post-high school pathways to economic mobility.

When COVID-19 closed schools and workplaces seemingly overnight, students were left reeling. Suddenly balancing distance learning with remote work, family caregiving responsibilities, social isolation, and the healthcare and financial consequences of the virus, our students felt unmoored and uncertain. In spring 2020, more than 1 in 3 students anticipated delaying or changing their post-high school plans as a result of the pandemic.

UA staff jumped into action, working one-on-one with every student to walk through their academic, career, and financial post-secondary plans, providing extra support when students had reduced access to school counseling services. Ultimately, the Class of 2020 graduated with confidence for their future: only 5% of students ended up deferring their post-high school plans. On average, 90% of our students are accepted to college and 80% enroll. 80% of our students then remain connected to an economic-mobility pathway (college, living-wage employment, career training, or military) one year post-graduation.

Like so many senior-year milestones upended by COVID-19, graduation looked very different for the Urban Alliance Class of 2020. Instead of walking across a stage to receive their diplomas, our students had Zoom graduations and video celebrations from home – and an unexpected opportunity to celebrate with the entire country.

From seeing our students’ smiling faces during CNN’s graduation special, to hearing from our interns on CBS News, Good Morning America, or the local news in DC and Chicago, and seeing our interns dancing and delivering part of the student commencement speech during the nationwide ‘Graduate Together’ TV special – Urban Alliance students showed the nation that joy and hope continue in the darkest times. And for Chicago student Aniyah Fisher, an intern at the Obama Foundation through our joint Obama Youth Jobs Corps program, the challenge of moving to a virtual graduation turned into a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to introduce President Barack Obama during his national commencement message – and receive a personal shout-out from him to treasure for years to come.

During a year of historic challenges, the Urban Alliance community never wavered. From raising record amounts from individual donations to our annual 24-hour fundraiser and COVID-19 student relief fund, to champions reaching out to ask what more they could do for students, our partners rallied around our youth like never before.

Internally, staff also stepped up in an inspiring way, working nights and weekends to redesign and overhaul our program while remaining available to students 24/7. Isolated and overwhelmed, students needed connection and support, and UA staff became teachers, coaches, counselors, social workers, and friends. From hosting honest conversations to help students process the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and so many more, to organizing panels with healthcare experts so students could separate myth from fact during the pandemic and game or movie sessions to provide some much-needed escapism, UA staff went above and beyond, all from the confines of their home offices. By the end of the program year, 93% of the Class of 2020 completed the program despite the challenges of this year and reported feeling strongly supported by UA – thanks to the ongoing commitment of this community.

The shift to remote work showed us more than ever that to be successful in any future job, our students must be equipped with the tools and knowledge to work from anywhere, anytime. Research shows that soft skills – the uniquely human skills that allow for adaptability and success in any workplace – make up 80% of career success.

When we shifted to remote programming, we combed through our soft-skills-focused curriculum lesson by lesson, converting our interactive, in-person skills training into online modules designed to accommodate our full cohort across all five regions. We modified our project-based learning to ensure students were matched with work that contextualized our soft skills curriculum in this new remote environment, while supplementing it with enhanced digital literacy training. We also continued to make our training available outside UA, by leading virtual skills training or train-the-trainer initiatives for Chicago Public Schools teachers, Baltimore YouthWorks staff, and DC Public Schools career academy students. Our program year culminated in a completely new final project, turning our annual in-person Public Speaking Challenge into a Virtual Interview Challenge, teaching the soft skills needed to ace job interviews alongside the technical know-how to do it virtually.