Durham City Council considers continued partnership with non-profit focused on disconnected youth
The Durham City Council will discuss continuing its partnership with a local non-profit during Monday night’s meeting. The nonprofit, Made in Durham, has maintained its partnership with the city since the nonprofit's inception in 2015.
The $150,000 contract being considered for this fiscal year tasks the nonprofit with creating work-based learning opportunities, such as internships or apprenticeships and partnering with local businesses.
According to the city’s agenda item, learning loss and dropout rates for this school year have been higher than projected.
Durham City Council Member Leonardo Williams said connecting young people in Durham with education and jobs is one solution to violence issues.
"We have a lot of work to do," Williams said. "We have to engage them at an early age, and part of doing that is making sure we’re leveraging this economic growth we’re experiencing as a Triangle."
The nonprofit is also partners with Durham Public Schools. Made in Durham Director of Community Partnerships, Dominique Oliver, says economically disadvantaged students are currently suffering the most.
"Those students are having less participation. They’re showing up less," Oliver said.
In addition to keeping young people in school, Made In Durham works to engage those who have already dropped out.
"We look at working with community educators, and things like that to get GEDs, other high school equivalences to try to bring all of those students back into an educational system," Oliver said.
The non-profit tries to tie the continuing education to a career.
"There’s a pathway for students who aren’t following their traditional tracks," Oliver said.
Rotcelis Jones is a Transition Support Strategist for Made In Durham. She’s also working on the Building Up Local Life Sciences Initiative, or BULLS, which is focused on connecting Triangle-based jobs to Triangle-based talent.
"Our goal is really to work within a collaborative, using community based organizations and corporate government to create pathways for youth ages 18 to 24," Jones said. "We want to make sure that the jobs here in Durham that are life science programs are for our students and our residents in Durham. We have so many people coming from out of town, which is a good thing, but we want to build this system using local talent."
