Beyond Labor Markets and Schools: Community-Based Youth Serving Organizations and the Integration of Puerto Rican and Dominican Disconnected Youth in New York City.

Theory suggests that community organizations and networks are essential to promoting the socioeconomic integration of disconnected youth--particularly disconnected youth of Puerto Rican and Dominican Latino ethnic origin. Yet the types of community organizations and networks present in the local settings disconnected youth engage in, and the potential of these networks to impact economic outcomes experienced by this youth population, remain relatively unknown. This paper presents an overview of the types of community-based youth serving organizations present in local settings in which Puerto Rican and Dominican disconnected youth engage. It also typologizes strategies used by these organizations to support the integration of disconnected youth. Drawing on findings from a survey and case studies of community based youth serving organizations in Northern Manhattan, the findings indicate that the role of community-based youth serving organizations in supporting disconnected youth both flanks and contests the forces of exclusion confronting this youth population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]