Good morning Chairperson Bonds. My name is Amy Dudas (she/her), and I am the Senior Advisor for Career Readiness at DC Action. DC Action convenes the Youth Economic Justice Coalition which comprises youth development providers, research and policy partners, youth and community leaders to develop career readiness policy priorities that will improve economic mobility outcomes for Black and brown youth in the District. The priorities of the Coalition are reflected in my testimony’s analysis and recommendations.
First, I’d like to commend Councilmembers Lewis George, Nadeau and Pinto for introducing the DC Young Adult Corps Act of 2026 to offer new opportunities for the District’s young people to access quality early work experiences, develop industry-specific skills through work-based learning, and receive individualized support through coaching and mentorship. We know from examples in Colorado, Louisiana, Massachusetts, and from our neighbors in Maryland that similar programs can help ease postsecondary transitions for students. Adding a year-long program after high school can provide students invaluable time and real-world context to inform their postsecondary planning, and mitigate the financial and psychological disruptions caused by abrupt transitions to independence and the rigors of college and entry-level employment. In fact, national workforce advocacy partners at Jobs for the Future see programs like the Young Adult Corps as a piece of a broader strategy they call the Big Blur, or the radical restructuring of education for grades 11-14 by erasing arbitrary dividing lines between high school, college, and careers.
As introduced, the legislation requires the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME) to establish a structured, paid, full-time (30-40 hr.) service year job training program for District residents ages 17-24 with a high school diploma or equivalent. The program would be administered by the Department of Employment Services (DOES), and informed by an Advisory Group composed of government agency representatives. Corps job placements would support District communities, nonprofits, and government agencies in the areas of “education, health, environment, and public safety” and provide youth participants with “professional, educational, and civic skills.” The program would also incorporate coaching, mentorship, and cohort-based learning opportunities. Host sites seem to be expected to be the primary funders of Corps’ members’ salaries but DOES is authorized to subsidize employer wages, if public funding is available. The bill authorized DOES to furnish participants with an award of up to $3,000 for successful completion of the full program, drawn from a non-lapsing Service Year Fund which the Agency is to administer.
DC Action supports the vision and many provisions of the DC Young Adult Corps Act of 2026, but recommends improvements and additional specifications to ensure the program reaches its intended impact on reducing employment barriers for youth, long-term participant career outcomes, and meeting critical talent needs in the District’s public and nonprofit services sector. Especially commendable provisions of the legislation include prioritizing “youth experiencing barriers to employment,” minimum wage compliant participant pay, strong data reporting and accountability measures, an emphasis on in-program mentoring and classroom-based skills development, and post-program pathways to further education, training and employment.
The program design of the DC Young Adult Corps proposed through B26-567 must be strengthened to meet District students where they are in terms of academic engagement, should include the seamless integration of wraparound supports for inclusive access, and should more explicitly integrate quality work-based learning standards. Specific improvements include:
- Additional specification of approvable community or public service sectors and areas of focus. For example, would placement at an out-of-school-time program be approved as sufficiently related to education or public safety? Would placement at a food bank, homeless shelter, or Department of Human Services (DHS) intake center be an approvable host site? Through DC Action’s Out-of-School Time (OST) and Youth Economic Justice Coalitions, staff shortages are often named as a challenge across the District’s youth development nonprofit sector. With additional clarification, the DC Young Adult Corps could also serve to strengthen the District’s infrastructure of community-based care by connecting OST or youth development program participants with a seamless pathway to leadership, early work experience, and skill development.
- Youth should gain academic or professional credentials or certifications as part of their participation in the Young Adult Corps Program, in alignment with high-quality work-based learning standards. This could be achieved through an apprenticeship model or the DME’s partnership with a local postsecondary institution to facilitate cohort-based learning courses in subject matters such as youth or child development, nonprofit management, public administration, conflict resolution, introductions to social work, education, or public health.
- Ensure cohort-based learning includes curriculum aligned to the skills and knowledge needed for the relevant subject area of civil service, the incorporation of real-world, industry-relevant examples, projects and/or case studies, performance-based assessment to evaluate participants’ skills and abilities and how they align to the career field, and the incorporation of transition supports including field-specific job search strategies, resume building and interview skills. Cohort-based learning should be developed with and reviewed by employment partners to ensure the continuous improvement of program learning series, the incorporation of emerging best practices in relevant fields, and overall program quality. Learning sessions should also include worker’s rights training and financial capability instruction, including budgeting support, banking access, credit repair, and tax filing assistance to support youth in establishing financial independence and economic mobility.
- Remove high school or equivalency requirements. Educational disengagement without a secondary credential is a significant participation barrier for thousands of the District’s young people, and is especially prevalent among chronically unemployed youth. The Act should, however, require participants to have been enrolled in or graduates of a District of Columbia public or public charter school within the past 10 years. This allows flexibility to serve youth whose families were displaced from the city while still requiring an attachment to the District beyond recent residency.
- Require ongoing training and thorough vetting of host employers to ensure they receive instruction on the core components of positive youth development and are well equipped to provide culturally competent support to their youth employees. As a starting point, the program can leverage the PILOT Assessment developed by ChildTrends to guide the implementation of positive youth development and begin to establish this shared understanding of asset-based approaches with employers.
- The DC Young Adult Advising Group should include at least two (2) youth advisors and two (2) community based youth workforce experts in addition to Agency representatives.
- The DC Young Adult Advising Group should be responsible for mapping post-program pathways to and continuing support for education, training, and employment, including the George Washington University’s Youth Development Professional Credential, the Office of the State Superintendent (OSSE)’s Apprenticeship in Teaching program, and employment pathways from service year placements to permanent employment within District government or DC’s nonprofit sector. Post secondary bridge programs have the potential to catalyze a young person’s trajectory to lifelong learning and employment skills, but clear pathways, supported by career coaches and mentors are pivotal in guiding young workers to match their job interests and preferences to their accumulated skills, and to advise them on how to apply them to different career options.
- The DC Young Adult Advising Group should be empowered to establish program eligibility with more explicit prioritization for participants who:
- Are experiencing economic instability
- Are experiencing homelessness or housing instability
- Are parenting
- Have a history of juvenile justice involvement
- Have a history of foster care involvement
- Identify as LGBTQI+ or gender non-conforming
- Disclose a disability or chronic illness or health challenge, including mental health challenges
- Provisions should go further to include the seamless integration of wraparound supports for inclusive access. Specifically, Section 7(e) should be amended to, “DOES shall provide, support, or coordinate additional benefits or allowances for participants, including transportation assistance, housing supports, access to childcare, referrals to mental health clinicians, counselors or peer-groups, reasonable accommodations for full participation of youth with disabilities, and other supportive services to maximize a participant’s successful completion of the program”. Without explicit requirements to provide wraparound services to participants, the program creates access for youth experiencing barriers to employment without making sufficient effort to mitigate them throughout program participation. Integrated wraparound supports will increase success within and beyond the program, ensuring participants are not set up for failure.
Thank you again for prioritizing the introduction of new and innovative approaches to strengthen students’ postsecondary pathways. Thank you for the opportunity to testify and I am happy to answer any questions.