Target Populations

The organizations surveyed for this project typically serve low-income students, first-generation college-goers, racial/ethnic minorities and other groups typically underrepresented among college degree holders. The project specifically surveyed these organizations to assess how many programs have specific expertise in serving some of our most vulnerable students, including English language learners, disconnected/out of school youth, students with IEPs, or justice-involved youth. Based on the responses from the direct service organizations, fewer than a quarter of programs consider themselves well-suited to serve English Language Learners or disconnected/out of school youth, and only 17% and 13% of programs respectively said that they are well-suited to serve students with IEPs and justice involved youth*. While students from these populations are likely served by multiple other programs as well, the data suggests that a limited number of programs believe they have the expertise to serve these vulnerable populations most effectively. Each of the maps displayed here illustrate the neighborhoods/communities served by community-based programs that have a particular expertise in serving the following populations: English language learners, disconnected youth or out of school youth, students with IEPs or other learning challenges, or justice involved youth. In each map, the varying degrees of color demonstrate the number of these programs serving that particular neighborhood/community. * These statistics are based on the 191 programs that serve individuals directly and responded to the survey as of 06/30/2016