Last month SecondMuse Capital hosted a rich roundtable discussion on the role of innovative finance in accelerating youth employment led by our very own Garrison Turner. The gathering brought together over 20 stakeholders from across the youth employment ecosystem - including investors, youth leaders, youth serving organizations, and foundations - to examine the challenges young people face along their employment journey and how new sources and forms of capital can be leveraged to fund high impact solutions. A special thanks to our co-hosts Kathleen Elsig with World YMCA, Matt Greenfield with Rethink Capital, and Hana Sahatqija with Generation Unlimited for their contributions.
During our discussion, several key were raised points around the role of finance can play in transforming the journey a young person can take from learning to earning:
Creating meaningful change within the youth employment system requires a multi-pronged approach. UNICEF’s 4C model provides a valuable framework:
Case-make: creating compelling, evidence-based messaging on the opportunity.
Converge: Integrating youth employment investing into existing standards and frameworks.
Crowd in: Growing the amount of private capital funding outcomes in the space.
Coordinate: Creating spaces for field- building collaboration among diverse actors.
To reduce grant dependency of programs and avoid burdening young people with debt, it is important to think creatively to tap new capital pools for youth employment funding. For example, Forte, deploys a unique financing model allows governments to invest in training today, by allocating a portion of future tax revenues they wouldn't otherwise have, avoiding the need for philanthropy and student debt
New solutions must encourage public sector strengthening of labor market policies and avoid benefiting only a small number of actors
As we look ahead to the fall, we'll continue exploring innovative finance's role in improving employment outcomes through our Learning to Earning Future Economy Lab. Reach out to hello@secondmusecapital.com to learn more and get involved.
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