Breaking the Cycle: How Two YDPA Apprentices Are Healing Their Communities

“To me, that’s the biggest message with this apprenticeship — this is the perfect way to learn how to change lives.”

As we celebrate National Apprenticeship Week 2024, we highlight two Lake County Youth Development Practitioner Apprentices who use their work to break the cycles of trauma and heal their communities: Luis Garcia Jr. and Jenessa Armstrong. Click here to read about their journeys in becoming the person they wanted to have in their corner growing up.

A Community Approach to Addressing Native Incarceration: Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts

Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts have emerged as a promising community-based, culturally competent solution to disproportionate Native incarceration in the United States, drawing on the community to appropriately address the needs of justice-involved Native Americans. This review examines the disparities in Native incarceration in federal and state systems, as well as how these disparities can be addressed, including the role of Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts in effectively improving outcomes for participants.

Careers in Trade eBook

The Careers in Trade guide is an interactive tool that will guide you through numerous trade-related career pathways. You will be provided the opportunity to explore careers in trade, various certification options, an insight into the roles and responsibilities of multiple careers in trade, and connection activities bridging academics and trades.

2023 NIWL Annual Report

Our work in 2023 highlights our pivotal role as an intermediary organization. In fulfilling our mission to advance access, equity and excellence in education and workforce systems, we focus on bringing people together, listening to our partners and local leadership, fostering networks of support and providing a comprehensive spectrum of services for learning and workforce development.

Read NIWL’s 2023 Annual Report to learn more about our work to strengthen our partners and forge connections so that we can all reach our fullest potential.

Just looking for the highlights? Check out our 2023 Infographic.

2022 NIWL Annual Report

The individuals and communities we serve include those from historically underserved communities, who may be impacted by poverty, displaced from education or the workforce, involved with the justice system, or experience systemic and institutional inequities. By collaborating with these communities to devise responses to their needs and priorities we advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in work and learning.  This Annual Review summarizes our work in 2022.

Exploring Nursing Pathways eBook

This nursing career guide will help you determine what you can do in high school to prepare for a career in nursing, help you identify post-high school education options to become a nurse, explain the various types of nursing degrees that you can pursue, and provide you with a peek at the day-to-day responsibilities of a few nursing specialties.

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NIWL Annual Review 2021: Navigating Through Turbulence

This annual review summarizes the work and accomplishments of the National Institute for Work and Learning across the areas of college and career readiness, workforce development, and research and evaluation. It references major projects, publications and events, and uses data to demonstrate outputs and, where possible, outcomes. The review also mentions new work won and our agenda for 2022.

Going the Extra Mile: A Case Study of Rural Reentry in Arkansas

Going the extra mile: A case study of rural reentry in Arkansas provides an exploration of a rural community in southeast Arkansas that takes a unique, individualized approach to reentering young adults ages 18-24. The received wisdom on rural reentry is that it is generally more difficult than reentry in an urban setting. Phoenix Youth and Family Services, which serves a rural part of Arkansas, has excelled on key outcomes as part of FHI 360’s Compass Rose Collaborative (CRC)1, a project funded by the U.S. Department of Labor to improve the education and employment outcomes of young adults,
ages 18 through 24, after involvement in the U.S. criminal justice system.
Phoenix Youth and Family Services provides wraparound support services to its participants to help juveniles, young adults, and families secure a safe, healthy, and strong life

A New Justice Paradigm: Collaborative Approaches for An Equitable System

A New Justice Paradigm: Collaborative Approaches for an Equitable System, explores the justice system from the perspective of criminal justice practitioners and young adults aged 18 to 24 who have been impacted by the justice system. We take this approach both to understand better— at the ground level—the system that exists and to help imagine a more supportive, more efficacious, and more equitable alternative. Some of the striking elements of the current justice system include the overwhelmingly disproportionate representation of young Black males in the system and the tragedy of how trauma has affected their young lives. Institutional inflexibility, from first contact with law enforcement through incarceration, limits young people’s chances to break the cycle of poverty and to pursue work and learning opportunities that could enrich their lives and their communities.

Compass Rose Collaborative Fact Sheet

The Compass Rose Collaborative (CRC) brings together FHI 360 and a cohort of partners that will serve justice-impacted youth in a holistic way. Through NIWL-designed training materials, a learn-and-earn working environment, and valuable mentorship activities, the CRC ensures that participants are equipped to thrive in their careers while minimizing further justice system involvement. Read this fact sheet to learn more.