The Grads of Life Public Service Announcement campaign initially launched in September 2014 and, to date, has received more than $81 million in donated media support. In partnership with the Ad Council, we have recently launched a new series of ads to address this critical employment gap and introduce employers to the incredible business benefits of working with Opportunity Youth — unemployed young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 who are an often an overlooked talent pool.

A particularly powerful piece of the new campaign is a series titled 7 Second Resumes, in which Opportunity Youth spend seven seconds—the average amount of time a hiring manager spends reviewing a resume—describing their unique attributes that add to their value as employees. The qualities and skills that these young people have acquired throughout their life journeys cannot be itemized on a resume, but are often the very core competencies that employers look for in their employees.

Also, Grads for Life has published an impact report detailing the success the Grads of Life campaign has seen thus far. With your support and partnership, we look forward to continuing to expand our reach and in the coming months, we plan to be in touch more frequently with updates on what Grads of Life is doing and how you can participate.

Ways to get involved: