The Memphis nonprofit dedicated to serving teens and young adults who are neither in school, nor working, is now The Collective Blueprint.

Formally established in 2017, The Collective Blueprint works to eliminate barriers to and create new avenues for self-sufficiency for those ages 16 to 30 by creating career pathways and access to resources and opportunities.

The new name, changed from The Collective, reflects an expansion of the organization’s mission to address poverty among young adults. In its first three years, the nonprofit has focused on directly supporting young adults in finding careers leading to living wages.

The Collective Blueprint will continue that work, as well as increase its efforts to change systems and policies for the benefit of the estimated 45,000 young people in the Memphis-area who are not in school or working.

“The current economic structure is unsustainable,” Sarah Lockridge-Steckel, co-founder and CEO of The Collective Blueprint, said in a statement. “Our education and employment systems and policies hinder economic mobility by not addressing the needs and concerns of all of our city’s young residents. We started our work by trying to give young people access to the jobs and resources that already exist and finding workarounds for the various roadblocks that our program participants face. 

"Now, we are turning our attention to building new pathways and systems that will eliminate economic disparities altogether and create viable pathways to prosperity for everyone,” she said.