Community College of Aurora is getting a $100,000 grant to help youth who are disconnected from work and education get back on track for career success, according to a news release from the college.

The grant came from Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions, which supports community-based efforts to help youth get educated and employed, according to the release.

Grant funding, which will be split over two years, will go toward a partnership between CCA, Colorado Youth for a Change and the Denver Opportunity Youth Initiative.

For two years, $50,000 each year will go toward programming that “reduces barriers for young people facing systemic obstacles to education and employment,” the news release said. This will include individual coaching, mentoring, workforce development and transition services into school and the workforce.

Clair Collins, vice president of Enrollment Success and Completion at CCA, said the grant will help them ensure every young person has the opportunity to thrive.

“Together, we’re building more than just programs,” Collins said in the release. “We’re building pathways that lead to long-term success.”

While the specific grant is going to CCA, the initiative is part of a larger national movement led by the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions.

In Denver and Aurora, there are nearly 13,000 youth between the ages of 16 and 24 who are not in school and not working, according to the Denver Opportunity Youth Initiative website.

Youth for a Change took over in 2022 as the backbone organization for the initiative, which launched in 2012, creating priorities that include increasing the number of youth who are reengaging in high school, GED and transitioning into post-secondary education.

“As a community of educators, we collectively see the promise in every young person,” CCA President Mordecai Brownlee said in the release. “This grant represents an investment not only in their education but in their futures — and in the future of our communities.”