Model and Strategy
New Door Ventures believes that every young person deserves the chance to become an independent adult. However, due to obstacles such as poverty, housing instability, trauma, or a history with the justice system or in foster care, they don’t all get the chance. There are nearly 80,000 16-24-year-olds in the Bay Are currently disconnected from work and school; without intervention during this critical time, they’re at risk for a lifetime of negative outcomes, including unemployment and homelessness.
New Door disrupts the cycle of disconnection by preparing opportunity youth for work and life through the jobs, training, education, and support they need to discover their potential and become thriving members of their communities. Data informs our programmatic decisions, and in 2018, 93 percent of New Door graduates were employed and/or in school at program completion.
Over the next two years, New Door will provide at least 1,000 young people in San Francisco and Alameda Counties with foundational work skills, educational opportunities, intensive case management, alumni support services and paid jobs through two social enterprises and 100+ businesses that serve as job partners.
Impact
Expanding New Door’s successful program model will change the lives of disconnected young people throughout San Francisco and Alameda Counties and beyond. Over the next two years, New Door will support 1,000 young people with our high-impact blend of paid work, skills training, education programming, and one-on-one case management, and directly employ 600 opportunity youth across the Bay Area, including 300 in our newly launched region, the East Bay.
Our model for scaling jobs engages existing local businesses to provide employment for our youth, and our Expansion-through-Partnerships approach means we join forces with peer nonprofits to share infrastructure, resources, and an overlapping population of young people who benefit from a web of community supports.
We’re also launching a pilot program to create employment opportunities for New Door graduates to bridge the gap between our own transitional Employment Program and careers in the marketplace. This is significant, because New Door graduates need increased access to long-term employment options that provide sustainable wages and career development opportunities to keep pace with rising costs of living.
The Bay Area is changing rapidly, and New Door is growing in response to ensure that low-income youth are not left behind, but rather have the chance to connect to the many opportunities afforded in our region. We’re expanding both the breadth and depth of our program by literally and figuratively meeting our young people where they are in terms of their location and their level of readiness for full-time employment and/or education.
Leadership
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Tess Reynolds
Executive Director
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Lilly Green
Chief Program Officer