Programs like Dallas Summer Jobs, bolstered by ASP’s innovative partnership, show that with the right investments, we can achieve measurable outcomes – equipping youth with trajectory-changing employment opportunities while addressing workforce gaps for businesses. ASP’s expertise in youth development and performance-based programming brings a fresh approach to fostering career-readiness in paid internships, prioritizing quality, impact and robust support for both interns and employers.

Research shows that young people learn best when they have richer lives outside of school: taking trips, meeting different kinds of people and trying new things. Young people from privileged environments have a multitude of these experiences, but these development experiences are few and far between for young people in poor communities. One of the programs All Stars Project has created to challenge students in the summer is the Development School for Youth, an out-of-school program that trains young people to perform as professionals, learn the culture of business and the arts, and practice becoming someone who is more worldly than they are. We can turn the summer “slide” into the summer “stride” — when underserved youth can hit a new stride of becoming fulfilled participants in the world around them.

All Stars Project of Dallas helped her build confidence and add skills by taking her to major companies for games and activities. The program focuses on developing interpersonal skills, such as making eye contact and learning how to handle awkward situations. It emphasizes performance, broadly defined as everything from singing on stage to behaving professionally in business settings. All Stars linked Oreno with a paid internship at Hunt Oil Co., and she continues to benefit from the All Stars Project via Development Coaching, a fairly new program that launched early in the pandemic to connect underserved young adults with advisers anywhere in the nation.