Giving disadvantaged young people the life and work skills to succeed
Spotlight on the work of Youth Development Initiatives, a Charlotte-based organization chosen for the 2025 Youth Skills and Employment Accelerator. YDI works with high school students from disadvantaged and underserved backgrounds.
Many young people leaving high school lack the confidence, knowledge, and skills needed to move into the world of work.
If they come from disadvantaged backgrounds, the challenges can be even greater. But Youth Development Initiatives is helping adolescents in Charlotte, North Carolina, find pathways out of poverty and into success.
The nonprofit provides high school students with critical life and job skills training, as well as individualized career and post-school education planning. Founded in 2006, it has served more than 3,500 young people.
Youth Development Initiatives (YDI) was chosen by the Global Business Coalition for Education to take part in the 2025 Youth Skills and Employment Accelerator. With employers across all sectors in the United States struggling to find young talent with the expertise they need, the Accelerator is part of a nationwide drive to ensure that by 2030 all young Americans will have the skills needed to find work in a rapidly-changing job market.
The Accelerator equips nonprofits with the tools and support they need to make a real difference in the lives of young people from underserved communities.
Darryl Bego, President and CEO of YDI, said: “We are focused on improving economic mobility for underserved, marginalized youth and their families.
“Our participation in the Accelerator will provide networking and learning opportunities as well as collaborative connections and resources to achieve our goal locally, regionally, and nationally.”
We know we would benefit from the training and corporate support, as well as from the network opportunities offered
Darryl Bego, President and CEO of Youth Development Initiatives
Bego grew up in public housing and drew from his personal experiences as a youth when he established YDI. He identified a lack of after-school programs that focused on engaging disadvantaged high school students in relevant, research-based, and results-driven training to ready them for the outside world.
YDI runs two main programs – the YDI Career Academy and the Family Life Skills Academy. Training for both programs is structured and supported by YDI’s proprietary curriculum called the Life Management Guidance Course, which is a project-based teaching tool formatted after core Career-Technical Education lesson content and interactive learning.
YDI’s lead program, the Career Academy, takes place after school and engages disadvantaged and underserved teens in a year-round career guidance and workforce development process. It includes career exploration and advice, academic enrichment, job skills development, trades training, and post-high school education planning, as well as a paid summer work experience.
All this equips students with the skills and resources needed to graduate high school prepared to succeed in college, vocational training, the military, or the workforce.
Laketia McClain, mother of a student in the program, said: “This program has been so wonderful – it helped my son find his passion. It helped him be more social, to come out of his shell. He’s very eager to learn the next phase of his life. If it wasn’t for Mr Bego, he probably wouldn’t have his first paid internship. He is very happy about it.”
Over the next five years, YDI aims to support about 2,000 underserved students attending Title 1 high schools in Charlotte’s most vulnerable communities.
Bego said: “Participating in the Youth Skills and Employment Accelerator would help us achieve our intended impact because we would be part of a growing and organic network from which we can draw insight, inspiration, and support. We know we would benefit from the training and corporate support, as well as from the network opportunities offered.”
Youth Development Initiatives and the other organizations in the 2025 Accelerator will join the alumni network of 28 previous participants which collectively have positively impacted more than 250,000 young people. When they complete the program, nonprofits and their leaders stay in the growing network – helping them to work with others and get peer support.
Businesses that support the Accelerator have opportunities to enhance brand recognition and strengthen community ties. They can also provide pro-bono products and services to support participating organizations.
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