Sprint Corporation has announced its plans to provide 1 million high-school students who don?t have the Internet at home with mobile devices.
The news comes on the heels of President Barack Obama?s conversation about the progress his ?My Brother?s Keeper? initiative has made since its launch in 2014. In a conversation at North Carolina A&T State University, he talked about it.?????
?In just two years, My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) has come a long way. Nearly 250 communities across 50 states, 19 tribal nations, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have committed to supporting our kids from cradle to college to career. We’ve implemented new federal programs that are breaking down barriers to opportunity. And foundations and companies have made more than $1 billion in commitments to strengthen communities and transform lives,? the president said.
President Obama said another major new commitment among others including the Sprint Corporation pledge, is that 50 companies have signed on to #FirstJob Compact, committing to develop better practices to hire disconnected youth.?
In October, The White House released the following statement about the initiative: ?We recognize the benefits to our businesses, our economy, and our country of taking advantage of the talent, experience and skills of all Americans, including Opportunity Youth – out-of-school, out-of-work young people. Unfortunately, for a young person just starting off in working world, the prospect of finding a first job with a blank resume and limited education can be daunting.?
1. Identify jobs and internships that can be filled by young workers (ages 16 to 24) with little or no prior experience. If needed, appropriately adjust job descriptions, application, screening, and interview process to make them more accessible to low income teens and young adults.
2. The #First Job Hiring and Recruiting Compact pledges to build on the following practices:
3. Partner with nonprofits, school districts, workforce development boards, and others to identify and
recruit opportunity youth in specific regions where you operate.
4. Develop a plan to support opportunity youth once hired so they can gain the skills and experiences
needed to move up in a career or educational pathway.
5. Take steps to create data systems to track and capture results so you can demonstrate how hiring
opportunity youth adds business value.
6. Develop internal and external communications strategy to share outcomes of opportunity youth hiring
initiatives with HR and operational leader.
Among the 30 companies that have committed to the compact are IBM, AT&T, MasterCard and Viacom, Inc., to name a few.
MBK has inspired similar undertakings. In June 2015, the Small Business Administration named Mike Muse, a Network Journal 40 Under Forty honoree, its My Brother?s Keeper Millennial Entrepreneur Champion.?
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