Bridgeport has been selected as one of two cities nationwide to initiate a program for youth impacted by the COVID-19 economic crisis.

Park City Career Pathways connects the Classes of 2020 and 2021, who graduated high school amid a pandemic-induced recession, with career paths and higher education. The program is expected to serve at least 400 former Bridgeport students....

....The initiative is part of a project from MDRC, an education and social policy research organization formerly known as Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation. The group changed its name in 2003....

....Studies have shown that recession-year graduates face sizable income losses and have had higher death rates in middle age than their peers, according to a report from the Stanford Institute for Economic and Policy Research.

“MDRC launched this project because as we look back in time, during recessions, young people who graduate from high school fair much more poorly,” said Robert Ivry, senior consultant and former senior vice president at MDRC....

....Representatives for MDRC said they rooted the project in Bridgeport because of the infrastructure there with RYASAP and its partners, and for the city’s unique qualities....

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