A Year Up: Helping Young Adults Move from Poverty to Professional Careers in a Single Year

[Chertavian] demonstrates that with hard work and the right supports … young adults can overcome even the toughest of circumstances. -Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO, Harlem Children’s Zone

There are many good jobs in America-and many urban young adults eager to take them-if they can bridge the Opportunity Divide that strands many motivated workers at the bottom of the job ladder.

In 2000, Gerald Chertavian, a successful technology entrepreneur and banker, dedicated his life and business expertise to founding Year Up, an intensive one-year program that provides otherwise stranded young adults with training, mentorship, internships, and ultimately real jobs. Following a single Year Up class from admission through graduation, A Year Up lets students share - in their own words- the challenges, failures, and personal successes they experience during the program. It is the inspiring story of a pioneering program that is bridging the Opportunity Divide, with results that can fuel our economy and revive the American ideal of equal opportunity for all.