Abandoned: America's Lost Youth and the Crisis of Disconnection

by Anne Kim

Overview

Winner of the 2020 Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice

A deeply affecting exposé of America's hidden crisis of disconnected youth, in the tradition of Matthew Desmond and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc

For the majority of young adults today, the transition to independence is a time of excitement and possibility. But 4.5 million young people—or a stunning 11.5 percent of youth aged sixteen to twenty-four—experience entry into adulthood as abrupt abandonment, a time of disconnection from school, work, and family. For this growing population of Americans, which includes kids aging out of foster care and those entangled with the justice system, life screeches to a halt when adulthood arrives. Abandoned is the first-ever exploration of this tale of dead ends and broken dreams.

Author Anne Kim skillfully weaves heart-rending stories of young people navigating early adulthood alone, in communities where poverty is endemic and opportunities almost nonexistent. She then describes a growing awareness—including new research from the field of adolescent brain science—that "emerging adulthood" is just as crucial a developmental period as early childhood, and she profiles an array of unheralded programs that provide young people with the supports they need to achieve self-sufficiency.

A major work of deeply reported narrative nonfiction, Abandoned joins the small shelf of books that change the way we see our society and point to a different path forward.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620975008
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	02/11/2020
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	753,999
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Anne Kim is a writer, lawyer, and public policy expert with a long career in Washington, DC–based think tanks working in and around Capitol Hill. She is also a contributing editor at Washington Monthly, where she was a senior writer. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Governing, TheAtlantic.com, the Wall Street Journal, Democracy, and numerous other publications. She lives in northern Virginia.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part I Embarking

1 Emergence and Divergence 11

2 An Epidemic of Disconnection 25

Part II Drifting: Avenues to Disconnection

3 Marooned: Place and Opportunity 39

4 An Urban Opportunity Desert 54

5 When Work Disappears 66

6 Abandoned by the State: "Aging Out" 84

7 "Justice" 96

Part III Anchored: Paths to Reconnection

8 Throwing Lifelines 107

9 Intensive Care 114

10 Super Mentors 126

11 The Apprentice and the Intern 136

12 A Texas Turnaround to Make Schools Work 151

Part IV A New Youth Agenda

13 The "Fierce Urgency of Now" 167

14 Seven Steps for Ending Disconnection 176

Acknowledgments 195

Notes 197

Index 227

Editorial Reviews

12/09/2019

Washington Monthly contributing editor Kim diagnoses a “crisis of opportunity” among America’s youth in this substantial and cogent analysis of U.S. public policy. While affluent parents can afford to pay their children’s college tuition and subsidize their internships and their housing and health-care costs, Kim writes, low-income young adults don’t have the necessary support to make a successful transition into independent adulthood. She quotes a study showing that as many as 4.5 million young people ages 16–24 are neither in school nor working, and argues that millions more are at risk of a “lifetime of accumulated disadvantages.” She places the blame on “vast structural forces” including racism, poverty, failing public schools, “geographic and social isolation,” and inadequacies in the foster care system. Kim stresses the importance of mentorship programs and provides encouraging portraits of federal and local initiatives such as a Texas school district that lowered its dropout rate from 20% to 1%, and profiles young people who have overcome long odds to build stable lives. She presents strong evidence that “emerging adulthood” is a critical developmental period in people’s lives, and persuasively indicts the failures of the child welfare, juvenile justice, and public school systems. Policy makers and social justice advocates will find valuable insights in this sobering, well-sourced examination. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Abandoned:
“Perhaps the most compelling group in Kim’s book are the teens who have ‘aged out’ of the foster care system. . . . We may not be able to provide caring parents, but as Kim notes, we can do a better job bolstering schools in poor areas and provide more training, employment, and family planning programs.”
—Associated Press

"A remarkably important book. . . . Kim has set the table for a much-needed conversation about a population of young people neglected for far too long."
—Alex Kotlowitz, Washington Monthly

"Kim diagnoses a 'crisis of opportunity' among America's youth in this substantial and cogent analysis of U.S. public policy. . . . Policy makers and social justice advocates will find valuable insights in this sobering‚ well-sourced examination."
—Publishers Weekly

"A quietly powerful nonfiction debut. . . . the author enlivens the text with miniprofiles of beneficiaries of high-impact programs. An outstanding book for policymakers and people who work with adrift young people."
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"In defiance of stereotypes of lazy and unmotivated youth, Kim depicts young people who are eager to break into the workforce but face personal and structural obstacles that sabotage their efforts at every turn... [A] smart, solutions-focused examination of an often-overlooked social crisis."
—Booklist

"This comprehensive overview of the problem of disconnection among young adults in the U.S. offers proven solutions and concrete policy recommendations."
—Shelf Awareness (starred review)

From the Publisher

★ 2019-11-11
An urgent portrait of a neglected group of at-risk young people.

Americans under the age of 25 grab headlines when they launch flashy startups or become activists for social change. However, as Washington Monthly contributing editor Kim argues in her quietly powerful nonfiction debut, the success of such leaders masks an alarming reality ill-served by current public policy: "In 2017, as many as 4.5 million young people" ages 16-24 were neither in school nor working. Social scientists call them "disconnected youth" (or, in Europe, NEETs, for "not in employment, education, or training"), and many of them have aged out of foster care or spent time in prison and lack the support of trusted adults. A vice president of the Progressive Policy Institute, the author shows clearly how their plight tends to result from years of systemic failures. Some disconnected youth live in rural or urban "opportunity deserts," which decay as good jobs vanish, or "higher education deserts," which either have no post-secondary schools or none that teach relevant skills. Others have been unprepared for the transition to economic independence by schools, foster care, the criminal justice system, or government initiatives intended to help them. A striking example of a program falling short is the federal Job Corps, which gives 16-to-24-year-olds room and board in a dormlike setting along with education and training. However, according to a 2018 report by the U.S. Department of Labor, the Corps "could not demonstrate the extent to which its training programs helped participants enter meaningful jobs appropriate to their training." Among her many and varied examples of successful programs, Kim cites the Latin American Youth Center in Washington, D.C., a drop-in center where homeless young adults can find a safe place to stay during the day—and get food, take a shower, and talk to counselors. Although rich in statistics that support its positions, the narrative is never wonky, and the author enlivens the text with miniprofiles of beneficiaries of high-impact programs.

An outstanding book for policymakers and people who work with adrift young people.

Kirkus Reviews

Janet Song’s deliberate yet expressive voice resonates as she narrates Kim’s eye-opening and heartbreaking examination of young adults who slip through the cracks of society. Kim explores how people emerging into adulthood today have fewer options, more demands, and less guidance to achieve successful adulthood. Whether they’re situated in rural or urban environments, their choices are bleak, even with some organizations stepping up to fill the social support role. Though Song’s voice can sound slightly congested, she keeps a good inflective balance as she swings from sharing statistics to quoting youths to unpacking some of the hard stories that Kim has encountered in her research. Her delivery syncs well with Kim’s prose, making for an audiobook that doubles its impact on listeners. L.E. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2020 - AudioFile

Janet Song’s deliberate yet expressive voice resonates as she narrates Kim’s eye-opening and heartbreaking examination of young adults who slip through the cracks of society. Kim explores how people emerging into adulthood today have fewer options, more demands, and less guidance to achieve successful adulthood. Whether they’re situated in rural or urban environments, their choices are bleak, even with some organizations stepping up to fill the social support role. Though Song’s voice can sound slightly congested, she keeps a good inflective balance as she swings from sharing statistics to quoting youths to unpacking some of the hard stories that Kim has encountered in her research. Her delivery syncs well with Kim’s prose, making for an audiobook that doubles its impact on listeners. L.E. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2020 - AudioFile