Let us learn a bit more about one of the newest Eastside Pathways Partners, Year Up Puget Sound.
Year Up plays an important role in the community.
Year Up Puget Sound leads low-income young adults ages 18-24 to gainful employment, and helps them reach their full potential. We offer a direct service to students with a high support, high expectation model to inspire our students and graduates to be self-empowered leaders of their families, workplaces, and communities.
How does the work get done?
Year Up provides a direct service to our students in a year-long program that is comprised of:
- 6 months of technical and professional training
- 6 months at a corporate internship
- Support in finding employment after graduating
- 36 college credits
We partner with community organizations, corporate partners, and volunteers to provide high support to our students who face challenges that may affect their ability to be successful in our program.
We offer a dual-channel model with an option for students to enroll in our program at our site in Seattle, or at our Bellevue site on the Bellevue College campus.
Our students come from all around the Puget Sound, but we have a lot of students living in and around Bellevue, who are students at our Bellevue College site. We partner with Bellevue College to provide services and support to the young adults who need a hand up to gainful employment.
People can get involved with Year Up through their many different programs.
They offer:
- Mentor Program
- Tutor Program
- Mock Interviews
- Clothing and In-Kind Donations
- Donations
- Guest Speaker Series
- Career Day
- Lunch and Learn
Being a part of Eastside Pathways will make a difference for Year Up because as a collaborator with diverse organizations in Bellevue that offer support from cradle to career, we hope to connect:
- to premier partners working in the areas of jobs, careers, and for Opportunity Youth
- to prospective students who will eventually become change-makers in the Eastside community
- our students to programs and organizations that will help them become self-empowered and financially independent.
Article written by Katie Weiss, development specialist at Year Up Puget Sound