Jessica Suerth

The Republic | azcentral.com

A youth employment initiative is coming to the Phoenix area to pair young adults who are not in school or unemployed with jobs and education resources.

The second-annual 100K Opportunities Job Fair and Forum will be held on March 1 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the A.E. England Building near Arizona State University's downtown Phoenix campus.

The fair is designed to connect 300 young adults 16 to 24 years old with job interviews, education resources and other services at companies that include My Brother’s Keeper, ASU, YMCA and Goodwill. The 100K Opportunities organization has partnered with more than 40 employers to help provide work for young people, according to the group's website.

For those interested in a job interview the day of the fair, a pre-fair training will be held on Feb. 27 on resume and job application preparation, and interviewing.

Tamela Franks, executive director of Opportunities for Youth, a Phoenix organization that works with agencies to offer work and education options for young people, said the effort is designed to help set a positive course for young adults.

"Youth unemployment can have lasting consequences,'' she said in the media release.

"Early work experiences are linked to high school completion and higher educational attainment," Franks said. "In fact, high school graduates have lower rates of criminal behavior and depend less frequently on government and social services."

The 100K Opportunities Initiative was founded in response to a 2013 study that indicated the Phoenix area led the United States in disconnected youth. Nationally, one in seven young adults does not work or attend school. In metro Phoenix, it’s one in five, according to a report by Measure of America, a New York nonpartisan non-profit that studies well-being nationwide.

The first job fair in 2015 helped 500 disconnected youth get job offers and exposed more than 1,700 youth to the workforce.