Helping Young Adults Access the Benefits They Need to Succeed

Young adult­hood is a piv­otal time to gain the edu­ca­tion and work expe­ri­ence need­ed for well-pay­ing careers. But for many young peo­ple liv­ing in low-income house­holds, meet­ing basic needs — such as food, health care, hous­ing, trans­porta­tion and child care — can make it hard to stay enrolled in school or hold steady employment.

To address this, the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion is advanc­ing Wrap­around Sup­ports for Eco­nom­ic Suc­cess, a strat­e­gy designed to strength­en state and local sys­tems and help young adults ages 18 to 24 access pub­lic ben­e­fits that meet their needs and build paths to eco­nom­ic stability.

Why Ben­e­fits Access Matters

More than 1 in 10 young adults will lack health insur­ance in 2025, the Urban Insti­tute esti­mates. In addi­tion: Near­ly 1 in 5 young adults across the coun­try lived in pover­ty in 2023, and 1 in 10 young peo­ple expe­ri­ences some form of home­less­ness each year, accord­ing to Chapin Hall.

Social safe­ty net pro­grams — such as the Sup­ple­men­tal Nutri­tion Assis­tance Pro­gram (SNAP), Tem­po­rary Assis­tance for Needy Fam­i­lies (TANF) and Med­ic­aid — help peo­ple with low incomes meet their basic needs. Yet, too many young adults who qual­i­fy for these pro­grams are not receiv­ing them.

For exam­ple: 55% of eli­gi­ble young adults are not receiv­ing SNAP and more than 70% are not receiv­ing TANF, accord­ing to a forth­com­ing study by the Urban Institute.

Under­stand­ing Wrap­around Supports

Wrap­around sup­ports refer to coor­di­nat­ed resources — such as access to food, hous­ing, health and men­tal health ser­vices, trans­porta­tion and child care — that enable young peo­ple to focus on learn­ing and work­ing. These sup­ports com­bine per­son­al guid­ance with prac­ti­cal tools to help young adults nav­i­gate com­plex ben­e­fit sys­tems and meet their goals.

“Young peo­ple 18 and old­er — espe­cial­ly those who are respon­si­ble for sup­port­ing them­selves or their fam­i­lies — are expect­ed to be self-suf­fi­cient,” said Jef­frey Poiri­er, who leads this strat­e­gy with­in the Foundation’s Cen­ter for Eco­nom­ic Oppor­tu­ni­ty. ​“Yet in today’s world, many still need finan­cial and oth­er assis­tance to meet their basic needs and plan for their futures. Cre­at­ing youth-friend­ly sys­tems and com­mu­ni­ty prac­tices can improve their con­nec­tion to pub­lic benefits.”

Build­ing on Proven Approaches

The Wrap­around Sup­ports for Eco­nom­ic Suc­cess strat­e­gy builds on the Foundation’s recent invest­ments in career path­ways and its long his­to­ry of bol­ster­ing work­ing fam­i­lies. These efforts have helped young peo­ple access resources in famil­iar set­tings, such as job train­ing or edu­ca­tion programs. 

Through this work, the Foun­da­tion is invest­ing in inno­v­a­tive prac­tices that com­bine trust­ed rela­tion­ships with prac­ti­cal tools — such as ben­e­fits screen­ers — to con­nect young adults to pro­grams like SNAP and Medicaid. 

For exam­ple, the Stu­dent Basic Needs Coalition’s Peer Nav­i­ga­tor Pro­gram trains col­lege stu­dents to help their peers screen and enroll in ben­e­fits. Dur­ing the 2024–25 aca­d­e­m­ic year, the pro­gram oper­at­ed on 16 cam­pus­es and helped 402 eli­gi­ble stu­dents access SNAP. With Casey fund­ing, the pro­gram expand­ed to 32 cam­pus­es for the 2025–26 year, improv­ing aware­ness of basic needs among stu­dents and help­ing col­leges strength­en their sup­port systems.

The Foun­da­tion also is work­ing with Code the Dream, MyFriend­Ben and front­line staff to expand the use of tech­nol­o­gy tools that help young peo­ple iden­ti­fy and apply for ben­e­fits. These part­ners are explor­ing how to inte­grate ben­e­fits screen­ers into work­force pro­grams, post­sec­ondary insti­tu­tions and com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tions serv­ing young adults.

Mov­ing Forward

By improv­ing access to wrap­around sup­ports, the Casey Foun­da­tion aims to reduce bar­ri­ers to edu­ca­tion and employ­ment for young adults — so they can take mean­ing­ful steps toward long-term finan­cial stability.

Read more about efforts to expand pub­lic ben­e­fits access