Our mission is to increase socioeconomic mobility by building pathways to thriving careers.
What do young adults in Memphis need to live their best lives? The Collective Blueprint began in 2016 with this simple question. Since then, The Collective Blueprint has supported hundreds of young adults in gaining valuable workforce skills and partnered with dozens of companies and organizations to create sustainable change in our city and county.
The Problem
In the Greater Memphis area, more than 45,000 young adults, aged 16-24, are out of school and out of work.
Nearly half of these young adults are in poverty, and only 1% will be on the path to a living wage by the time they are 28.
These young people are almost exclusively African American, and their current prospects of achieving social mobility are severely limited.
For a child who is born poor in Memphis, the chances of rising socioeconomically are the lowest of anywhere in the country.
Our Theory of Change
Our vision is every young adult has the power to live their best life and the tools to make that a reality. To be successful, we partner with young adults to:
Create new pathways to opportunity. We facilitate entry into in-demand careers via school-readiness training, ongoing coaching, internships, employment support, and life-long access to a well-connected network.
Fix broken systems. Adult education is broken and corporations struggle to find the right people. We partner with institutions to fix the roadblocks that fuel turnover and low educational attainment. We implement business solutions to meet the needs of employers as well.
Mobilize young adults. Our system is set up for young adults to fail, but we can change that by supporting young adults in telling their stories and advocating for political and social change.
I saw the Collective’s program on social media and thought it could help me get into cybersecurity, but I got more out of my experience than just job training. My entire mentality shifted, from “I really need this job” to “What can this position offer me?” and “What can I offer this employer?”
CHRISHAUN CRUMP
The Tech collective Alumnus, 2022 Grad
Our Achievments
