Denver Youth Employment Program

Denver Public Schools (DPS) offers impactful and innovative partnerships that address the needs of the whole family. One such partnership is the Family and Community Engagement (FACE) program, providing access to resources, information, education, and support for everyone in the DPS community at any point in their life’s journey, including youth who not currently enrolled in school and/or not employed. DPS can help youth who have barriers to success such as:

• Being an English language learner
• Being a youth offender 
• Being homeless, runaway, in foster care, aged out of foster care, or in an out-of-home placement
• Being one or more grade levels behind in math or literacy skills
• Being pregnant or parenting
• Having a cognitive or physical disability

You can get support while you earn your diploma, funding for a GED, internships and jobs, tutoring, tuition assistance, transportation, mentoring, and help building networking skills.

To learn more, you can contact:

• In-school youth: Jess Brandhorst at jessica_brandhorst1@dpsk12.net
• Summer Denver Youth Employment Program: Allen Webb at allen_webb@dpsk12.net

Summer 2022 is coming! As the city's partner, DPS is also delivering the summer 2022 component of the Denver Youth Employment Program, which provides a range of pre-employment training sessions as well as a paid work experience. Applications will be open soon! 

Eckerd Youth Alternatives, Inc. (Eckerd Connects) is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) organization headquartered in Clearwater, Florida with operational locations in 20 states and the District of Columbia, serving over 35,000 clients annually. Here in Denver, Eckerd is our one-stop service provider and also provides programming for out-of-school youth. Learn more at: https://eckerd.org/region/co. 

Mile High Youth Corps serves diverse young adults with varying degrees of education, socioeconomic status, and work experience. MHYC understand that barriers must be addressed to close the growing skill and equity gaps in the workforce. Their programs provide skill building for future self-advocacy, along empowerment, encouragement, and mentoring. Programs range between 6-10 months, dependent on each individual's career and educational goals. 

To learn more, contact Heather Hurd at heatherh@mhyc.net. 

Prodigy Coffeehouse is a social enterprise run by the talent of young adults from Northeast Denver who have previously been disconnected from school and/or work. They envision an economically equitable Denver with a new generation of thriving, healthy, innovative community members who have experienced upward social mobility and live in diverse neighborhoods.

Through high-caliber professional development and hands-on learning in a Prodigy enterprise, disconnected young adults develop mindsets and skills for sustainable careers, economic mobility and, most importantly, to go forth and enrich their city. Prodigy’s mission is to build skills, mindsets, networks, and economic capital for sustainable careers.

To learn more, contact Brady Grant at brady@prodigyventures.org. 

Urban Peak's role as our partner brings services are uniquely tailored to address the challenges faced by youth who are experiencing homelessness. Urban Peak helps youth identify their individual strengths and future goals to support achieving independence and self-sufficiency. They can grant youth the opportunity to build trusting relationships with safe adults, often for the first time in their lives, while delivering education and employment services.

To learn more, contact Meghan LaPorte at meghan.laporte@urbanpeak.org.