How can a community like ours have 14,000 young people with no high school diploma? Can that really be true?

It is. And as staggering as that number is, you have the power to not just change the outcome, but the equation itself.

Your gift to Reconnecting Youth will help young people in our community reconnect to their education, earn a high school credential and build a solid career path to a bright future.

Your gift can mean a change for someone like November, who thought she wouldn’t graduate, and now he’s the first person in her family to earn a high school diploma. A change for someone like Anthony, who discovered he was pretty good at calculus in classes at iGrad and Green River College—after being forced to drop out of high school when he fell behind. A change for someone like Ingrid, who had a second chance to graduate high school and attend college, after previously dropping out of school to care for her baby sister when her parents became addicted to alcohol and drugs.

Those are just some of the 14,000 stories behind that big number. Most of these kids struggled with lack of support at school, instability at home and additional family responsibilities. They grew up under crushing obstacles of poverty, racism, language barriers and systemic bias. In dollars, the lifetime taxpayer burden for every out-of-school and out-of-work 16-year-old is $258,000, as estimated by Civic Enterprises, a public policy and strategy firm.

It doesn’t have to be that way. And these young people don’t need to be disconnected from their futures, their potential. Our kids deserve a 2nd chance. And you can help today.