Futures and Options

Futures and Options believes that all young people deserve a chance to achieve their potential in life and a career, and that New York City needs a diverse and prepared workforce. They reach out to young people at a formative time in their lives, guiding them to develop the skills, behaviors, and strategies necessary to succeed in the working world and contribute meaningfully to their communities.

Their founding program, The Internship Program, combines experiential, on-the-job learning with individualized coaching, offering students paid work experience and the foundation of a professional network. To complement The Internship Program, they created Career Essentials, a comprehensive series of workshops and career exploration events designed to introduce students to a range of career paths and prepare them for success in their first jobs. More recently, they launched The Externship Experience, a career exploration and skill-building program for high school students, designed and facilitated in collaboration with employer partners from a range of industries. They also developed ways to support our youth once they graduate from our programs, including our College Guidance Initiative and our Alumni Engagement Programming, which provide assistance with post-secondary planning and guidance on achieving strong first jobs. Futures and Options are proud to have reached more than 2,850 young people last year across our continuum of services and layered interventions.