Starbucks, other firms to give internships, jobs to 100K youths

It’s hard to underestimate the challenges faced by the 5.5 million Americans between 16 and 24 who aren’t in school and aren’t working. They’re disproportionately nonwhite, overwhelmingly poor, live far from large employers and often have their own kids to take care of.

Now the private sector is taking aim at the problem. Led by a $30 million investment from Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz, 17 major companies have committed to providing jobs, internships and apprenticeships to 100,000 “opportunity youth,” as they’re calling them. It’s the first coordinated, substantial engagement by employers to use their own payrolls as a part of the solution.

Employers that signed up to participate include Wal-Mart, Taco Bell, Target, Walgreens, Microsoft, Hilton, CVS Health, Alaska Airlines, Starbucks, Potbelly Sandwich Works, Macy’s, JPMorgan Chase, Cintas, HMSHost, J.C. Penney, Lyft and Porch.com. The effort will be coordinated by the Aspen Institute, which has a project aimed at engaging employers in helping disconnected youth. It will kick off in Chicago, where a coalition called Thrive has been working to support at-risk youth, with a giant job fair that hopes to hire 200 of them on the spot.

The project, which has been incubating for a few years, echoes corporate America’s previous effort to find jobs for 100,000 returning veterans — in which Starbucks enthusiastically participated. Disconnected young people, however, might be a more difficult population to reach and to keep engaged. If they do get jobs, they sometimes lose them when child-care needs come up or their transportation fails.

That’s why the Aspen Institute is emphasizing that participating companies will need to determine whether a young person needs a bus pass or is trying to finish his or her GED and could use some time off to study. At the same time, Aspen and the nonprofits it is working with will be supporting young people with soft-skills training and access to certificate programs.

The participating companies have been a little unclear on the exact nature of the jobs they’re offering. They haven’t said whether they’ll be hiring disconnected youth in addition to the rest of their workforce, or whether a job that goes to that young person will be available for someone else.

An outside consulting firm, FSG, will be tracking participants to see what practices propel them through that first job. Aspen and Schultz plan to replicate the initiative in at least four other cities, hoping that more take on the approach as they develop tools based on experience.