Amount Requested: $4,000,000

This program will support the national agenda to sustain students through support systems that engage youth and young adults in activities and opportunities to assist them in becoming productive citizens. Many high school students abandon school with only a few years left to graduation.  Nearly one-third of students fail to graduate with their class. With a dropout rate over 12%, Houston faces the dilemma of a replacement workforce unprepared to move into the jobs its employers need. Our future prosperity rests on our ability to prepare our youth for the workplace of the future. The project’s focus is to address the needs of youth and young adults that are not being met in the home or the school system. The goal of this project is to increase the number of youth that participate in post secondary educational opportunities whereby decreasing the probability of unemployment, living in poverty, receiving public assistance, going to prison, being unhealthy and parenting children to repeat the cycle.