Interactive Map: Libraries and Opportunity Youth
By Katie Sullivan, Senior Program Manager, Urban Libraries Council and Corissa Goodrich, Research & Data Analyst, Urban Libraries Council
This blog post is part of a March 2025 series highlighting the Creating Youth Opportunities (CYO) initiative, a ULC program that directly supports the capacity of 11 participating libraries to serve a total of 222 communities and reach more than 411,000 opportunity youth. The blog series features several guest authors, including partners and library staff who participate in the CYO program.
Opportunity youth are young people between the ages of 16 and 24 who are disconnected from both school and work. Since 2022, ULC’s Creating Youth Opportunities (CYO) initiative has explored ways in which public libraries can support opportunity youth to improve their long-term social and economic outcomes. Read more about library strategies to engage opportunity youth here.
There are young people in every community who could benefit from targeted programs and services. This interactive map overlays CYO member library locations with national youth disconnection data. You may use it to learn more about library programs to support opportunity youth that may be replicated in other communities.
Map Tips:
- For overlapping icons, zoom into the area to select.
- Click to highlight & hold a selected icon.
- View the map in full screen for the best experience.
Opportunity youth data sourced from Measure of America’s Youth Disconnection in America resource.
This work is supported by Walmart.org.
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