A large number of youth and young adults, ages 16 to 24, in the Kentuckiana region are disconnected from work and school.
Disconnection from earning and learning opportunities during these pivotal young adult years is costly for young people, taxpayers, and economic growth. These young people miss out on opportunities to learn new skills, gain experience, and expand their social networks. Disconnected youth are more likely to face persistent poverty and unemployment, engage in criminal behavior and substance abuse, and be incarcerated in their lifetimes than individuals that were not disconnected in their young adult years. Disconnection costs taxpayers billions of dollars in public support and lost tax revenues. Failure to address the problem becomes a self-perpetuating cycle, as the children of disconnected youth face similar outcomes as their parents.
Last year, nearly 17,500 youth and young adults in the Kentuckiana region were not enrolled in school and not working. This is unchanged from 2022, although it is a decline from the peak reached during the pandemic.
A quarter of the region’s Black youth and young adults were disconnected from work and school in 2023, triple the rate among the region’s white young adults.
Research from the Federal Reserve suggests barrier reduction is an important need for disconnected youth. Addressing structural barriers such as mental health, discrimination, criminal justice, and lack of access to child care and transportation, can reduce youth disconnection. The rate of young adults reporting mental health challenges has increased substantially since the pandemic, affecting job performance and productivity. In 2022, the rate of young people reporting depression was 50% higher than among older adults.
“Reducing disconnection is less a matter of young adults making better choices and more a matter of removing barriers to participation in the economy.”
The Spot: Young Adult Opportunity Center works directly with the region’s opportunity youth. The young people they see lack access to resources, have often faced traumatic events, and live in economic isolation. A key aspect of the program is barrier reduction, including support for mental health and trauma recovery, justice involvement, housing insecurity, transportation, and more.
To see more data on the region’s opportunity youth, check out our Opportunity Youth Dashboard.
