Young adults today are less likely to out-earn their parents than any previous generation, even when they do everything “right.” Basic necessities like housing, healthcare, childcare, and education that were affordable to previous generations are far more expensive today, making the transition into adulthood harder to navigate. To succeed in the future, young adults will need structured opportunities to gain professional experience, build networks, and access high-quality education and training to land good first jobs that lead to careers.

CELNA’s Postsecondary Pathways for Youth team works to promote stronger alignment across the systems that shape young adults’ economic success so paths from high school to economic security become more accessible, affordable, and equitable. We do this through three reinforcing strategies:

• Advancing innovative program models, including apprenticeship models and other pathways strategies;
• Conducting research and analysis on programs and policies that affect the institutions and systems that young adults must navigate as they exit high school and transition to adulthood; and
• Building networks of experts & practitioners to accelerate learning and to promote alignment across initiatives and communities focused on youth and young adults.

The two major initiatives of Postsecondary Pathways for Youth are the Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship and the Launch Pathways initiative.

WeProsper launched in 2021 to end predatory lending practices in Illinois, protect the Predatory Loan Prevention Act, and promote affordable lending alternatives.

For years, non-bank lenders and other businesses have pushed high interest rates, inflated prices for inferior financial products, and confusing, burdensome terms on marginalized communities already experiencing disinvestment, discriminatory policies, and pay gaps.

Despite less pay for equal work, Black and Latine communities in Chicago have to pay more to borrow—sometimes as much as 400 percent interest on short-term loans like payday, installment, or car title loans.

Those barely making ends meet pay huge premiums whenever their paycheck falls short. It’s no coincidence these communities are also banking deserts populated by alternative financial service providers.

Thanks to the leadership of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus and Governor J.B. Pritzker, Illinois enacted a 36 percent rate cap on personal loans. The Predatory Loan Prevention Act is one of the strongest regulations in the country—but it must be fully protected and implemented across all of the state’s communities to be effective.

Led by the New America Chicago, Chicago Urban League, and the Woodstock Institute, WeProsper launched in 2021 to end predatory lending practices, protect the PLPA, and promote affordable lending alternatives.

Care touches every life. At some point, we will all give care or depend on it. Yet our care policies and federal investments lag behind this undeniable reality. It’s time for change. The Better Life Lab has been instrumental in shifting the national conversation to focus on care innovations at the state, local and community levels. With the publication of the New America Care Report, we’ve been consistently calling national attention to the deepening care crisis across the life cycle and have taken a leading role in highlighting care solutions, investments and innovations across the country. Our research and storytelling have helped make the case for state and national paid family and medical leave policies, for more investment in care infrastructure, and have contributed to efforts to pass new legislation, and better implement existing policies at the state and local levels.

We are also broadening the gender equity and care conversation to include men: The Better Life Lab’s ongoing Men and Care project explores men’s attitudes and actions around care, the barriers and incentives they encounter and how that shapes family life. The open source quantitative and qualitative data continues to drive the national conversation for more inclusive policies.

The Lab is also at the forefront of developing and supporting a diverse cadre of care storytellers through our reporting grants initiatives, writing workshops, and story fellows program. Since 2021, we’ve supported more than 30 independent journalists and storytellers, who, along with the team, have produced more than 90 stories on child care innovations or the experience of having or not having access to paid family and medical leave that appeared in more than 40 different publications, helping to keep the spotlight on and pressure growing for inclusive care investments and family-supportive policies.

Since 2018, Uncovering the Wagner Group has been investigating Russia’s shadowy private military network. Using journalistic reporting, open-source investigation techniques, and large-scale data analysis, we expose the complex web of special forces veterans, military intelligence officers, separatist operatives, and business interests that enabled Wagner’s rise.

Our work illuminates the geostrategic calculations and covert operations the group was designed to obscure—providing insight into its role in conflicts around the world. By combining rigorous research with public accountability, the initiative helps policymakers, journalists, and the broader public understand the evolving nature of hybrid warfare and private military power.

More than 4 million postsecondary students are parents. While student parents are highly motivated and just as academically capable as their nonparenting peers, they are less likely to graduate from college and take longer to complete. Higher non-tuition costs for expenses like child care and housing, lack of support for basic needs, and systems and policies that weren’t built with student parents in mind can all stand as barriers in their postsecondary education journey.

New America’s student parent team conducts research, policy analysis, and advocacy to improve outcomes for parenting students. Our goal is to advance policy solutions that support student parents in higher education. We work towards this by elevating public awareness of student parents, bringing new organizations and stakeholders into the field, and connecting research, data, and promising practices to advocacy.

The Shangri La Series convenes practitioners, policymakers, technologists, and scholars from around the globe to chart a practical agenda for AI governance and deployment among middle powers. Through the series, participants are empowered to prepare their countries and communities to tackle the challenges of AI head on. See the distinguished experts who make up The Series’ advisory committee.

Much of the global AI conversation has centered on “digital empires:” the United States, China, and the EU. While these actors are undeniably important, a majority of real-world AI use and experimentation is taking place outside of these superpowers. Middle-income countries—from India to Brazil and from Indonesia to Rwanda—are seeking their own pathways, as sites of innovation; experimentation; and cost effective, high-impact deployment. By bridging silos across these regions and different sectors, The Shangri La Series grounds global AI so that people, regardless of where they live, benefit from the technology.