Three national foundations have launched a $2 million initiative in five cities to support local efforts to keep young people from dropping out of high school.
The Youth Transition Funders Group—made up of local, regional, and national philanthropies—announced the $275,000 grants on Jan. 12 to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, Ore., and San Jose, Calif. The money will pay for local partners, including school districts and other organizations, to come together to plan ways to better serve young people who are either at risk of dropping out or have done so.
The project will include technical assistance to the cities and opportunities for them to learn from one another.
The Initiative to Support Struggling Students and Out-of-School Youth is being underwritten by three members of the youth-funders group: the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
The Gates Foundation also announced a $3.8 million grant to the Institute for Research and Reform in Education, based in Philadelphia, to help expand its work with school districts transforming struggling high schools. The group’s framework, “First Things First,” now operates in eight school districts with 70 schools.
