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Year Up Founder and CEO Gerald Chertavian Leads HubWeek Opening Session on Closing the Opportunity Divide

Oct 31, 2024

 

Chertavian will discuss how Year Up has created pathways to success for tens of thousands of young adults, and how organizations can work together to create inclusive communities across the United States.

“Pursuit is a critical aspect of Year Up – as we pursue more inclusive communities and hiring practices, our students are pursuing meaningful careers and the chance to redefine what talent looks like and where it comes from,” said Chertavian

BOSTON (PRWEB) OCTOBER 01, 2019

Continuing to drive systems change to create more pathways towards higher education and meaningful employment for young adults, the national nonprofit Year Up announced that Founder and CEO Gerald Chertavian will lead the opening session of HubWeek’s 2019 Fall Festival around the theme of “Pursuit.”

The talk will take place at 12:40 pm on October 1st at the Seaport, and will be followed by a Q&A session moderated by Natalia Urtubey, Director of Small Business in the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development.

Launched in Boston in 2000 with a class of 22 students, Year Up has since opened campuses in 25 cities across the United States. The program partners with forward-thinking community colleges and top companies to provide underserved young adults—talented and motivated young people ages 18-24 who are disconnected from the economic mainstream and often stuck in low-skills, low-wage, low-opportunity jobs, if employed at all—with the skills, support and experience they need to launch careers in business and IT.

“Pursuit is a critical aspect of Year Up – as we pursue more inclusive communities and hiring practices, our students are pursuing meaningful careers and the chance to redefine what talent looks like and where it comes from,” said Chertavian. “Working with our community college and corporate partners, and thanks to the hard work, grit and determination of our young adults, we’ve built the most successful workforce development program in the 21st century. Now, the challenge – and opportunity – is to take what we know and scale it at an unprecedented rate to ensure that every young adult in the U.S. is seen as an asset rather than an economic liability.”

Last summer, a federally-sponsored evaluation of Year Up showed a 53% increase in initial earnings for young adults randomly assigned to Year Up compared with similar young adults in a control group—the largest impacts on earnings reported to date for a workforce program tested in a randomized controlled trial.

About HubWeek

HubWeek is a creativity and innovation festival, and a first-of-its-kind civic collaboration between The Boston Globe, Harvard University, MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital. Since HubWeek launched in 2014, the festival has had a major impact on the city of Boston, collaborating with over 730 organizations from Boston and beyond, including 400+ startups, 71 artists and 56 non-profits. HubWeek's mission is to convene, celebrate and showcase the most creative and inventive changemakers in art, science and technology making an impact in Greater Boston and across the globe.