Urban Alliance is a national youth workforce development organization that empowers economically-disadvantaged youth to remain connected to sustainable college and career pathways.
Urban Alliance's core model – the High School Internship Program – is an intensive, year-long workforce development experience for underserved high school seniors that combines four programmatic elements: (1) paid 10-month internships; (2) comprehensive pre-internship and weekly continued training in college and career readiness skills; (3) dedicated mentorship from caring adults; and (4) support to program alumni.
Since its inception in 1996, Urban Alliance has connected over 4,000 youth to paid internships and provided job readiness training for 18,000 more across its current sites in Washington, DC; Northern Virginia; Baltimore, MD; and Chicago, IL. In 2018, Urban Alliance will expand to a fifth region.
Urban Alliance has generated externally-validated results and strong student outcomes: 90% of students who complete its core youth employment model are accepted to college, 80% persist beyond the second year, and 80% remain connected to college or a career pathway one-year post-program.
