1/Invest in Louisiana’s Opportunity Youth: Nearly 1 in 6 Louisianans aged 16 to 24 are neither working nor going to school. But there are steps that state policymakers should take to ensure that Opportunity Youth are connected in a post-Covid-19 economy. https://www.labudget.org/2020/12/invest-in-louisianas-opportunity-youth-for-an-equitable-lasting-recovery/

2/Opportunity Youth are more vulnerable than others their age, as they are transitioning from childhood to adulthood without the social and economic support needed to thrive later in life. Unfortunately, this cohort disproportionately includes young Black people.

3/Young Black men in Louisiana, despite only being 18.8% of young adults in the state, make up 27.1% of all disconnected youth.

4/Young people have been hard hit by the economic fallout from Covid-19. They are over represented in jobs that were most affected by shutdowns, and are more likely to have a job that can’t be worked remotely. But people of color have been hit the hardest.

5/While many of the obstacles facing Louisiana’s Opportunity Youth are challenging, none of the problems they experience are mysterious or unsolvable. In fact, they include problems shared by many other working and low-income people and communities