Opinion: CT’s unspoken crisis: Elevating the voices of young people

Public systems that are supposed to help young people often end up perpetuating disconnection.  That’s what we learn when we listen to young people who are disconnected from school and employment in Connecticut.

Through its Connecticut Opportunity Project initiative, Dalio Education recently released the final report in its research series on Connecticut’s Unspoken Crisis: “Elevating the Voices of Young People,” prepared by Community Science. The power of this study to inform our understanding of how to successfully re-engage the 63,000 young people in Connecticut who are disconnected lies in its design: the data source for the report’s findings and recommendations are the voices and experiences of the young people directly impacted by this crisis.

When we listen, we hear how one young man ended up in juvenile probation because of his school’s response to his absenteeism. In his words, he was in juvenile detention for “truancy, not going to school, not showing up, not being where I was supposed to be at.”

We also hear how young people in need of housing hesitate to seek supports for fear of triggering child welfare system involvement, with one young woman revealing: “When people do the 211 call and say certain things, next thing you know DCF’s involved. When it’s really not even their fault or anything, but they’re not doing anything bad.”

A total of 74 young people between the ages of 14 to 26 were interviewed by Community Science from across seven cities, with an overrepresentation of Black and Hispanic/Latino(a) young people, and more men relative to women, mirroring the demographic trends we see in the population of young people in Connecticut who are experiencing disconnection. Community Science explored young people’s experience in their community, interactions with different public systems (education, criminal justice, child welfare, healthcare, and housing), and hopes and aspirations for the future.

Young people further shaped the study through the creation of a Community Advisory Group (CAG) that was convened regularly to inform the collection and interpretation of data. Nine of the 13 CAG members were young people who had experienced disconnection. They were joined by four professionals who work with or in support of this youth population and served as validators for their perspectives while providing additional context, in terms of the challenges and assets of communities as well as the racial, ethnic, and cultural dynamics that exist in Connecticut. We created a space where people could show up authentically to share their experiences and feedback, to help test the analysis and ensure the key themes emerging from the study resonate with their experiences in their communities. All of the major decisions made by the research team were shaped by input from the CAG, including pivots made based on insights they shared.

From this report, we see that disconnection from education is often a precursor to interaction with other systems, and that once young people are engaged in multiple systems, it can produce an almost self-perpetuating cycle that leads to long-term disconnection, from school and work as well as from other resources, which reinforces the challenges young people are facing.

We also learn about the important role of social capital and how lack of access to it impacts young people, with the limited nature of resources and supports available to young people making it that much more difficult for them to weather the complex challenges they face.

Through improved system coordination coupled with culturally-responsive, trauma-informed practices that prioritize rehabilitation over punitive measures, we can do better by our young people, and help them achieve goals and aspirations they hold that are so much bigger than just themselves, including their children, families, and communities. As one young woman reflected: “Construction would really help me because I really want to build something for the children. I want to build something for the homeless where you don’t have to be on the streets no more. I want to do that in every community that I go to. I want to help every community that I can.”

The goals and aspirations of the young people interviewed for this report are not unlike those that many young people would share – financial security, educational attainment, gainful employment. Their definitions of success also reflect the profound challenges they have had to navigate with determination and hope for a better future. According to one young person: “…success means to me when I’m wealthy enough, my kids or my future generation wouldn’t have to worry about anything. I feel like that’s real success.”

Through these reflections, one key theme that shines through is our young people’s incredible “resilience, resourcefulness, and determination to transcend the limitations imposed upon them by societal norms and structural inequalities,” in the words of the report’s authors.

This report also demonstrates how we can position the young people impacted as the ones not only conveying their needs but also as part of developing the solutions. This approach enables the creation of solutions that are practical, responsive, and fully actualized because they are designed in partnership with those whose needs they are designed to meet. That’s how we address root causes and generate real change.

Samantha Miller is a Portfolio Director for the Connecticut Opportunity Project at Dalio Education