Overview
“A relative told me about Year Up and convinced me to apply. When I learned more about the program, I thought it was too good to be true!” says Bryan Holston, member of the Year Up class of 2006. Like far too many young people in the country and in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, Bryan had not had the opportunity to learn and develop the skills that would allow him to pursue a successful career. Then he heard about Year Up.
Year Up National Capital Region (NCR) puts urban young adults on a viable path to living wage careers and opportunity. The program targets the 33,000 young adults in the Washington, DC area who do not have access to livable wage employment and who are not engaged in higher education. With Year Up NCR’s focus on job skills training, internships with local corporate partners, college credit, and various levels of support, students are given the opportunity to succeed and realize their career potential.
Year Up NCR, the regional site of a national workforce readiness program, opened its doors in the Washington, DC area in 2006. Currently serving 144 young adults per year, the cutting-edge model has demonstrated its “best in class” status in the local workforce development arena. Year Up NCR’s employment placement rate is over 85% and demonstrates the program’s clear pathway to employment, economic self-sufficiency, and career development.
Given the opportunity, Year Up NCR believes its students have motivation, will choose a clear viable career pathway, and will succeed. The organization’s high support, high expectations model for its students was an ideal fit for Bryan, who is now a Deskside Support Technician at Perot Systems. He has no plans of stopping there, however: “At Year Up I learned as much as I could about IT. I overcame my fear of public speaking; I learned what it meant to be responsible; and I began communicating my thoughts more clearly and effectively. My internship at Perot was a motivating experience and I am grateful for the opportunity to work and learn from such a talented team. I am now building upon my skills and plan to expand my passion for IT by hopefully managing my own IT team of professionals some day and, with any luck, a software development company.”
Investment Fact Sheet
Year Up National Capital Region (NCR)
http://www.yearup.org
1560 Wilson Blvd., Suite 350
Arlington, VA 22209
Ph: 703-312-9327
Fax: 703-312-7986
Year Up was founded in October 2000. Year Up NCR opened its offices in February of 2006.
Executive Director, Year Up NCR: Tynesia Boyea Robinson
Founder, Executive Director, Year Up: Gerald Chertavian
Chairman, Year Up NCR Advisory Board: John King
Chairman, Year Up Board of Directors: Timothy Dibble
Mission and History
Year Up's mission is to close the Opportunity Divide by providing urban young adults with the skills, experience, and support that will empower them to reach their potential through professional careers and higher education.
Year Up achieves this mission through a high support, high expectation model that combines marketable job skills, stipends, internships, college credit, a behavior management system and several levels of support to place these young adults on a viable path to economic self-sufficiency.
Year Up was founded in October 2000 by Gerald Chertavian as a one-year intensive education and internship program for urban young adults aged 18-24 in Greater Boston. The program recognizes that both job skills (technical and professional) and higher education are necessary to provide a viable path to economic self-sufficiency. The mission is to prepare these young adults for successful careers and higher education. Year Up has sites in Boston and Cambridge, Atlanta, New York City, Providence, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. and is currently expanding to other locations across the United States.
Leadership
Ronda Harris Thompson , Executive Director, Year Up National Capital Region (NCR)
Ronda Harris Thompson is the Executive Director of Year Up National Capital Region. Since joining Year Up in 2007, she has served in several critical capacities, including Senior Director of Program and Academics. In this position she drove the outreach, admissions, college enrollment, and academic components of 300 young adults annually, consistently exceeding expectations for each area of responsibility. Ronda also developed and implemented a groundbreaking dual enrollment partnership with Northern Virginia Community College.
With over 20 years of experience in the D.C. market, Ronda has held several positions maximizing her youth development and managerial expertise. Prior to joining Year Up, Ronda served as Deputy Director for City Year in Washington, D.C., where she oversaw the site's training, corps member support and service initiatives. Other positions included Acting Director of the Public Affairs Office of the D.C. Housing Authority, and Public Affairs Specialist for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Ronda, a D.C. native, graduated from Bowie State University, an historically Black university, with a B.A. in Psychology and an MSA (Master of Science) in Administration and Organizational Development from Trinity Washington University. She currently serves on the board of Gifted Servants (D.C.).
Gerald Chertavian, Founder and CEO, Year Up National
Gerald Chertavian is dedicated to closing the Opportunity Divide that exists in our nation. Determined to make his vision a reality, Gerald combined his entrepreneurial skills and his passion for working with urban young adults to found Year Up in 2000. An intensive one-year training and education program that serves low-income youth ages 18-24, Year Up is providing the technical, professional, and communication skills needed to empower urban young adults to make successful transitions to careers and higher education. With its annual operating budget reaching $20M in just seven years, Year Up is one of the fastest growing non-profits in the nation. It has been recognized by Fast Company and The Monitor Group as one of the top 25 organizations using business excellence to engineer social change.
Gerald’s commitment to working with urban youth spans more than 20 years. He has actively participated in the Big Brother mentoring program since 1985 and was recognized as one of New York's outstanding Big Brothers in 1989. The recipient of the 2003 Social Entrepreneurship Award by the Manhattan Institute and the 2005 Freedom House Archie R. Williams, Jr. Technology Award, Gerald has been featured in many media outlets, including The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, CNN, Forbes Magazine, Time Magazine, Fortune Small Business, BusinessWeek, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Boston Business Journal and The Christian Science Monitor. In 2007, Gerald was elected as a Fellow with the Ashoka Global Fellowship of social entrepreneurs for his innovative approach to social change and as a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization. In 2008, Gerald was appointed by Massachusetts’ Governor Deval Patrick to serve on the MA State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. He currently serves as a Trustee of Cambridge College and Bowdoin College and is on the Board of Directors for The Boston Foundation and the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. In addition, he serves on the Board of Advisors for the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Club, New Sector Alliance, The GreenLight Fund, Adolescent Consulting Services, and Boston Scholars.
Gerald earned a B.A. in Economics, Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude, from Bowdoin College and an M.B.A., with honors, from Harvard Business School. He began his career on Wall Street as an officer of the Chemical Banking Corporation and then moved on to become the head of marketing at Transnational Financial Services in London. Gerald co-founded Conduit Communications in 1993 and fostered its growth to $20M in annual revenues and more than 130 employees in London, Amsterdam, New York, and Boston. From 1993 to 1998, Conduit ranked as one of England’s fastest growing companies. Following the sale of Conduit to i-Cube in 1999, Gerald turned his full attention to opportunities for others.
Paul Salem, Chairman, Year Up Board of Directors
Paul Salem has been investing in private equity for the past 13 years and is a Senior Managing Director and co-founder of Providence Equity Partners. Paul oversees Providence's European investment activities. Paul has been responsible for investments in incumbent telephone companies, competitive local exchange carriers, advanced data solution providers including web hosting and ISPs, publishing, wireless data networks, Internet content, and telecommunications infrastructure. He was, during the period of Providence's investment, a director of AT&T Canada, Inc. (formerly MetroNet Communications Corp.), Song Networks Holding A.B. (formerly Tele1 Europe Holding A.B.), Netcom Canada, NC Holdings, Interep National Radio Sales, Inc., Unisite, Inc., Verio, Inc., and Wired Ventures, Inc.
Prior to joining Providence, Paul worked for Morgan Stanley & Co. in corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to that time, Paul spent four years with Prudential Investment Corporation, an affiliate of Prudential Insurance, where his responsibilities included private placement financings, leveraged buyout transactions, and establishing Prudential's European investment office. Paul received a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University.
John King, Chairman, Washington, D.C. Advisory Board
John King is a vice president and one of the co-founders of Perot Systems Corporation. He is the member of the Perot Systems’ Senior Leadership team that has responsibility for the enterprise quality strategy and direction. He also has responsibility for the organization that supports and maintains the company’s corporate systems.
Mr. King has more than 30 years of technical and management experience. He was previously responsible for building Perot Systems Financial Services, the company’s second largest vertical industry group, as well as establishing Perot Systems’ relationship with Swiss Bank Corporation, the largest contract in the company’s history.
Before joining Perot Systems, Mr. King worked at Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in all areas of the company, from applications development to large-scale program management. For EDS, his last area of responsibility was division management of all business with the United States government.
Mr. King has a bachelor of science degree from Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, and he serves on its Board of Trustees.
Investment Summary
Please note: this Investment Summary represents VPP's perspective at the time of the investment agreement, October, 2009.
In October, 2009 VPP entered into an investment partnership with Year Up National Capital Region (NCR), an innovative workforce development training program that prepares and places low-income young adults in sustainable, living wage careers while also preparing them for college. The VPP investment will help Year Up NCR expand the impact on the young adults in the region, train more young adults, and potentially influence how local workforce development efforts are executed and funded.
OPPORTUNITY
Year Up NCR provides young adults with full-time training in technical and professional skills culminating in six-month customized internships with corporate and government partners in the region. The program's target population, young adults with a high school diploma or GED who are neither employed nor enrolled in higher education, is nearly 15% of all 18-24 year olds nationally and is illustrative of an ever-deepening national opportunity divide. The program achieves its mission through a high support, high expectation model that combines marketable job skills, stipends, internships, college credit, a behavior management system, and several levels of support to enable them to enter the economic mainstream through living wage, high quality employment opportunities, and higher education. Another aspect of Year Up's unique program is supporting the community and social networks that enhance the ability of young adults to succeed and live happy, healthy, productive lives.
Since its founding, Year Up NCR has been committed to scaling the program to achieve measurable impact in the region. Year Up NCR's specific aspiration is to scale a successful direct service program for the National Capital Region; achieve the cumulative impact at the community level of training a significant number of young adults to be more productive citizens; and implement a strategy to influence workforce development efforts, corporate practices, and funding. This successful direct service program in the National Capital Region has the credibility to influence policies and practices, including government and corporate hiring practices, and increase the site's impact on thousands of young adults. The business planning process completed in July 2009 identified several specific areas of program refinement and growth, including but not limited to, Year Up NCR graduating 240 more students per year; doubling the number of youth served from 144 to 320 by 2013; influencing the behavior and priorities of federal, state, and local governments on issues of education and employment for young adults; and demonstrating a nationally relevant partnership model with community colleges that can create a viable pathway for low-income youth to enter college and support additional growth in the number of youth served.
INVESTMENT RATIONALE
Key factors that underpin the thinking behind an investment in Year Up NCR include:
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Leadership – Year Up boasts exceptional leadership at the local and national levels as well as on the board of directors and the Washington, DC local advisory board. In particular, Gerald Chertavian, Year Up's CEO and founder, has proven his strategic and analytical thinking by founding Year Up in Boston, developing the growth plan and financial capital to expand the program nationally, and continuing to refine the operating model, expand capacity, and impact policy around workforce development. His entrepreneurial experience in the private sector has guided his success as a social entrepreneur. Year Up NCR's Executive Director, Tynesia Boyea-Robinson, established the site in 2005 and with limited experience in the community, was able to develop the partnerships in the philanthropic, government, nonprofit, and corporate communities that are essential to Year Up NCR's current and future success. Finally, Year Up's National Board and Year Up NCR's Advisory Board include prominent and highly accomplished private sector leaders that guide the organization's expansion and networks in the communities they serve.
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Program and Outcomes – Year Up has a strong business orientation that drives its sophisticated outcomes measurement system. Year Up leadership and staff are fully committed to a rigorous outcomes measurement framework and to a performance management system which is cutting edge in the workforce development field. The outcomes measurement system guides program refinement and growth and assures strong alignment with program goals. Year Up's employment placement rate after graduation (86%) is higher than other leading workforce development programs in the National Capital Region. Year Up has also contracted with the Economic Mobility Corporation, led by Mark Elliott (formerly of Public Private Ventures), to conduct a study of program performance and outcomes across sites, including the National Capital Region site.
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Demonstrated Performance – Year Up is well regarded as a "best in class" model in the workforce development field and its national growth plan has demonstrated significant results. Year Up received the Social Capitalist Award from Fast Company Magazine (2005, 2007, and 2008), the International Ashoka Fellowship, the Freedom House Technology Award, and the Manhattan Institute Social Entrepreneurship Award. In addition, Year Up is a New Profit portfolio organization and has partnered with the Nonprofit Finance Fund on the capital growth plan for Year Up.
SUCCESS FACTORS
Year Up National Capital Region is poised to increase its impact by expanding the model throughout the National Capital Region. An investment in Year Up is likely to be successful given the following:
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Management Team & Board – Tynesia Boyea-Robinson is part of Year Up's formidable leadership team at the national and local levels. Tynesia worked for Year Up in Boston while at Harvard Business School and came to Washington, in 2005, upon receiving her MBA. Tynesia developed the plan to launch the National Capital Region Year Up site during her time at Harvard and later was hired to establish the site. The guidance of highly qualified staff in senior management nationally drives program performance, strategic growth, and the national impact agenda around workforce development. Tynesia has also developed strong alliances with the local advisory board members and they support her personal growth and that of the local organization.
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Financial Sustainability – As part of its growth plan developed with the help of the Nonprofit Finance Fund, Year Up devised a plan to demonstrate long-term sustainability of the organization. By developing repeatable and replicable revenue streams, the Year Up model contemplates matching every $1 of private funding with $1 of public support and $4 of corporate investment.
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Leverage – Year Up at the national level is well connected with business partners, national funders, community stakeholders and policy experts in the field of workforce development. Year Up National Capital Region is at a point in its development where it has enough of a track record to establish credibility with a wide array of strategic academic, philanthropic, government, and corporate partners to strengthen the organization and raise its visibility and leadership in the workforce development field in this community.
USE OF FUNDS
Through this investment agreement, VPP will provide up to $4,500,000 in funding and strategic assistance to help Year Up NCR.
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Increase the number of Year Up NCR students from 144 to 320 per year by 2013 and serve over 800 additional alumni in the region.
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More than double the capacity of Year Up NCR for serving students and employer partners.
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Develop its ability to influence workplace hiring policies, and influence how governments view and fund workforce development initiatives.
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Demonstrate a nationally relevant partnership model with community colleges by Year Up NCR continuing to advance its community college partnership pilot with Northern Virginia Community College.
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Evolve Year Up NCR's funding model to ensure sustainable revenue sources.
Synopsis
Key Accomplishments
As the investment is in its beginning stages, there are no results to report at this time.
Key Information
n/a
Case Study
Year Up
The Year Up Case Study is not completed at this time. Please check back later.
