Youth Retention Initiative

The Youth Retention Initiative (YRI) brings together key NH stakeholders, UNH faculty members, and Extension staff with expertise in youth development, education, community engagement, leisure, and workforce planning in order to develop a state-wide research-practice agenda focused on how NH’s youth and emerging adults are approaching decisions about their educational, residential, and occupational futures.

We aim to help the state’s retention efforts to (a) expand the focus from early-career young professionals to youth and emerging adults still in the process of formulating future plans; (b) broaden the range of postsecondary and vocational goals considered as relevant to retention efforts; and (c) discern state-wide themes versus regionally-specific patterns in youth future planning.