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Mayor Gray Celebrates Opening of DC ReEngagement Center

Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Center to Strengthen District’s ‘Second Chance System’ for Out-of-School Youth

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - Mayor Vincent C. Gray, State Superintendent Jesús Aguirre, and Department of Employment Services (DOES) Director F. Thomas Luparello welcomed the launch of the DC ReEngagement Center. The center, which opened yesterday, is located at 4058 Minnesota Ave NE, Room 2304A within DOES headquarters.

“We cannot afford – both financially and morally – to give up on our young people,” said Mayor Gray. “Part of ensuring that young residents have multiple paths to graduation is to build stronger stairways and routes to help them reconnect with an educational path that will prepare them for a successful adulthood. This is exactly what the youth re-engagement center aims to accomplish.”

The DC ReEngagement Center is a centralized District service through which out-of-school youth between the ages of 16- and 24-years-old can reconnect to educational options and other critical services to support their attainment of a high school diploma or equivalency.  A new initiative of the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), supported by the Office of the Deputy Mayor of Education and DOES, the center seeks to further strengthen the District’s “second chance system” for the educationally disengaged and help them return to the opportunities they need and deserve.

“The ReEngagement Center will help DC’s young people identify what their goals are and determine educational options that are good fits,” said State Superintendent Aguirre. “The Office of the State Superintendent of Education will help support students in their re-enrollment process, whether it be helping them to collect required documentation or to visit prospective programs; connecting them with critical services aimed at eliminating non-academic barriers to their successful attainment of a high school diploma or GED; and providing ongoing support for at least one year once they have gone back to school.”

“After my meetings with the ReEngagement Center, success came from every direction,” said Henry Douglas, a DC ReEngagement Center participant.

Mayor Gray was also joined by senior staff from the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education, At-Large Councilmember David Grosso, Executive Director of the DC Public Charter School Board Scott Pearson, members of Raise DC’s Disconnected Youth Change Network and Director of the DC ReEngagement Center Ja’Sent Brown.

“Graduating from high school or earning the GED is one of the first and most important steps on the path to meaningful employment and it’s critical that our workforce and education systems are coordinated, streamlined, and intentional in its reach to support the educational and workforce needs of District residents,” said Director Luparello.  "The DC Youth ReEngagement Center is a shining example of this kind of coordination in action.” 

The data-driven initiative seeks to utilize the District’s high-quality educational capacity in order to serve the more than 7,400 youth who reside in D.C. and are currently disengaged. Additional data collection and analysis is underway using OSSE’s Statewide Longitudinal Education Data (SLED) System, which is providing a comprehensive understanding of the scope and characteristics of this vulnerable population.

For more information, email [email protected].