Program supports development of career and life skills
Jobs for America’s Graduates was founded to address the inequalities too many of America’s youth experience, which can limit their opportunities and prevent them from reaching their full potential. Jobs for Delaware Graduates is an affiliate of the national organization.
JAG helps the nation’s most vulnerable young people overcome significant academic, economic, and emotional challenges to succeed in school, jobs, and life. The JAG National Network has a footprint across 1,450 communities in 40 states, including Delaware, impacting more than 76,000 youth annually. JAG graduates consistently achieve outstanding results, including a 95.7% graduation rate, even amid a pandemic. JAG graduates are 230% more likely to be employed full time compared to their peers, and twice as likely to go to college.
In the last four decades, JAG has helped more than 1.4 million underserved young adults pursue productive paths. JAG specialists (teachers) empower their students, encouraging them to stay in school, learn vital job and leadership skills, and follow their dreams. JAG is instrumental in building impactful leaders who champion for positive change.
Locally, Jobs for Delaware Graduates has helped create numerous success stories over the years, including these recent examples:
Delaware Sen. Nicole Poore, D-New Castle, is president of Jobs for Delaware Graduates and serves on JAG’s national board of directors. She was re-elected to her Senate position in 2020, running unopposed. Poore’s interest in government policy began after the birth of her oldest son Nicholas, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. In addition to her activism in the special needs community, she has served on the Delaware Juvenile Justice Advisory Board, worked with the local rape crisis center and served as Exceptional Care for Children’s director of development.
Karryl Hubbard, Delaware Department of Labor secretary, participated in one of the earliest JAG pilot programs at Dover High School in Dover. After the program helped her overcome challenges to graduate from high school, she received a degree in political science and government from Hampton University, and a doctor of law degree from Temple University. In her current position, Hubbard has led efforts to help people in Delaware who have lost a job or income during the COVID-19 pandemic by connecting them with employment services and skills training so they can secure good jobs.
JAG and JDG have consistently proven that a well-executed model can help those historically held back by discrimination, poverty, and other barriers achieve equal or greater success in high school graduation, post-secondary education, and employment. Program graduates show that the strong foundation they’ve received – including education, job training, and leadership development – can help them become community leaders as senator, cabinet secretary, police officer, social justice advocate, or whatever their dream role might be. As the United States deals with the ongoing effects of the pandemic, combined with a reckoning to address racial and social inequities, JDG continues to support the most underserved young people across Delaware.
Jobs for Delaware Graduates was designed in 1978 by five working groups in Delaware, drawn from business, educational, workforce, labor union, and community leadership. The purpose of the organization was to simultaneously address Delaware’s unemployment and dropout rates. Together, the public- and private-sector leaders of the state developed the model of Jobs for Delaware Graduates. JDG’s mission is to enable students to achieve academic, career, personal and social success. More than 60,000 young people have participated in JDG programs since its inception, and more than 250 local employers rely on Jobs for Delaware Graduates to help cultivate enthusiastic, well-prepared, effective employees.
