Youth Disconnection in The Rapides Foundation Service Area, 2023
LAUNCHED SEPTEMBER 7, 2023
Youth Disconnection in The Rapides Foundation Service Area 2023 provides an in-depth look at youth disconnection in The Rapides Foundation Service Area (TRFSA, which includes parishes in Central Louisiana). This report presents the latest available data on youth disconnection in a region designated by the US Census Bureau that covers seven of the nine parishes in TRFSA and one parish outside it. A version of this report was previously released in 2019 using data from 2017. This report is an update on the current status of youth disconnection in TRFSA.
Disconnected youth are young people between the ages of 16 and 24 who are neither working nor in school. Organizations that work with this population also use the term “opportunity youth” as a more optimistic phrase “that calls attention to the opportunities these young people seek and that should be opened up for them.”
The youth disconnection rate in TRFSA in 2021 is 23.9 percent, or 8,450 young people. TRFSA has a higher disconnection rate than Louisiana as a whole, which has the second-highest disconnection rate among US states and in 2021 has a disconnection rate of 17.7 percent.
KEY FINDINGS:
- Since 2018, TRFSA saw a 1.8 percentage point increase in disconnection compared to a 1.3 percentage point increase in Louisiana and a 0.9 percentage point increase nationwide.
- Nearly half—46.7 percent—of all youth with a disability are disconnected in the region, 19.5 percentage points higher than the rate among youth with disabilities nationally.
- Since 2017, the more rural part of the region (PUMA 600) has shown a significant reduction in disconnection rates for young people with some college education, evidencing the benefit of access to further educational opportunities.
KEY ISSUES DISCUSSED IN THE REPORT:
- Covid-19’s Impact on TRFSA
- Characteristics of Connected and Disconnected Youth in TRFSA
- Youth Disconnection by Place
- Youth Disconnection over Time
- The National Context
- Limitations of the Data
The report is available in PDF form here.
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