With a mission to close the opportunity divide by ensuring that young adults gain the skills, experiences and support that will empower them to reach their potential through careers and higher education, Year Up is receiving the Slack for Good Award for using Slack to scale a remote, nationwide staff that’s empowered to efficiently collaborate, tackle challenges and better serve students.
Helping young adults find good jobs regardless of their zip code, Year Up has successfully served more than 36,000 students since 2000, with 80% of graduates employed or enrolled in postsecondary education within four months of completing their Year Up program.
The award-winning nonprofit first implemented Slack on the local level in 2017 before expanding to national use in 2019, then had to act quickly during the pandemic to fully shift its program and operations to a virtual environment. Not only did leadership need to consider its employees but also the many young adults who count on Year Up as well.
Within 14 days, more than 1,000 staff members were settled into Slack as their digital HQ. Working together remotely within a month, Year Up’s teams transitioned to offer all their programs virtually for more than 4,000 students and interns nationwide.
From program and IT to operations and finance, Year Up’s departments connected in Slack to launch a staff-facing Covid-19 information hub to communicate on-site closures, share impact to staff and students, offer role-specific help and align on technology. They also spun up a website covering FAQs about the virus and remote programs for students.
Year Up staff were accustomed to addressing students’ questions and comments locally, but the pandemic rendered this nearly impossible. Using Slack channels and integrations, Year Up centralized the way in which students could contact their instructors and program staff, creating a seamless space to engage and find answers. Year Up also utilized Slack workspaces to act as a central hub for various locations nationwide from Boston to the Bay Area, Chicago and South Florida.
To meet the demands of the quickly changing economy, Year Up’s sales and internship teams used Slack to identify, build and track opportunities for internships.
“Slack has redefined our ability for staff and students to collaborate, engage, and support one another, leveraging many tools and resources while also creating a fun virtual culture.
As a forward-looking organization, many of these projects were already on Year Up’s lists of priorities before the pandemic accelerated the timeline. With Slack as its foundation, the non-profit was able to quickly pivot and prioritize solutions that not only met program demand but also did so in a way that was equitable and inclusive of students, interns and staff with diverse home environments.
