Powering Potential: Plugging In Louisiana’s Opportunity Youth

In 2023, 85,325 young people in Louisiana ages 16–24 (15.7% of all youth in the state) were disconnected from both work and school, a rate that remains well above the national average of 10.6%.

A new report, Powering Potential: Plugging In Louisiana’s Opportunity Youth, uses American Community Survey microdata to understand who these young people are, where they live, when disconnection is most likely to occur, and what structural barriers they face. The report, by LOYAL (Louisiana Opportunity Youth Alliance), identifies critical transition points where young people may need additional support on the steep climb into adulthood.

The analysis highlights that disconnection nearly triples between ages 17 and 18 (from 4.2% to 11.5%), rises sharply again at 19 (18.9%), and remains above 20% for ages 21–24. These are the years when young people are leaving high school and attempting to connect to college, training or work and can be especially challenging without adequate guidance, resources or support.

The Hilton Foundation’s Opportunity Youth initiative focuses on expanding access to education, training and employment opportunities by strengthening the supports available to young people as they transition into adulthood. The report pinpoints ages, geographies and populations where disconnection is most acute, informing those who serve and advocate for young people about where the climb into adulthood is steepest and suggesting how we might best focus our investments to unlock the most potential.

The report surfaces interlocking barriers that define a “steep climb” into adulthood for Opportunity Youth in Louisiana:

• Poverty and low income: Over 33% of Opportunity Youth live in poverty; 91.3% earn less than $15,000 annually, compared with 71.6% of their connected peers
• Technology and connectivity gaps: Nearly one-third do not own a computer and 23.6% lack broadband access, sharply limiting access to education, training and work opportunities
• Family and health responsibilities: Opportunity Youth are almost three times as likely to be parents, more than twice as likely to have a disability, and nearly twice as likely to be uninsured as connected youth

The findings also underscore racial and geographic inequities:

• 20.5% of Black youth are disconnected, compared with 12.6% of white youth
• Young Black men are the most overrepresented group among Opportunity Youth
• 19.3% of rural youth are disconnected, some of the highest disconnection rates in the state

The report calls for policy and program responses that:

• Prevent disconnection by strengthening early childhood, K–12 education, and early warning systems
• Expand community-based wraparound supports such as mental health services, transportation, affordable housing, child care and technology access
• Increase economic security through measures like state-level tax credits and minimum wage policies
• Create clear, affordable pathways from high school to postsecondary education, apprenticeships and quality jobs

LOYAL’s research deepens our understanding of how Opportunity Youth move through these systems in Louisiana and helps shape more effective approaches to supporting successful transitions to adulthood. By investing in this analysis, we aim to equip local leaders, practitioners and policymakers with actionable evidence to inform policy solutions, program design and coordinated action.

Young people in Louisiana should not have to navigate the transition to adulthood alone. They deserve stable support systems and clear pathways that enable them to thrive, including access to stable housing, technology, healthcare, education and meaningful work experiences.