Prudential fulfills $180 million commitment to opportunity youth

Company invests in future global workforce and helps next generation live better lives, longer.

"I believe that giving youth the resources and opportunities to grow and represent our next generation is very important," says Cheyenne Edmonds, senior investment operations specialist in PGIM Investments, in the video above.

Prudential Financial announces that it has fulfilled and exceeded its $180 million global commitment to support opportunity youth, the largest private-sector investment in this group.

In 2019, Prudential committed more than $180 million through 2025 to support opportunity youth - young people aged 15-29 worldwide who are not connected to school, training or formal employment. The millions of opportunity youth worldwide represent untapped potential for our workforce and global economy, today and into the future.

"Our investment in opportunity youth is an important commitment we've made to the workforce of the future and helps set young people on a path to financial security earlier in life. Expanding access to quality workforce education and training helps young people secure strong first jobs, enabling them to build wealth and live better lives, longer," says Prudential Financial Chairman and CEO Charles Lowrey.

The Prudential difference: financial capability
Prudential engaged in partnerships with key organizations around the world to achieve impact at scale, including investment partners Andela, Penn Foster Group, and Social Finance. The company's partnership with the Aspen Institute, for example, scaled the work from the U.S. to a worldwide scope with the launch of Aspen's Global Opportunity Youth Network, which works with 15 communities (and counting) across nine countries.

Of the 600 million opportunity youth around the world, 4.4 million live in communities served by the Aspen Institute's Global Opportunity Youth Network to date. Through a blend of philanthropic grants, Prudential and PGIM, the company's investment management arm, have helped improve the financial security of more than 1 million opportunity youth globally by connecting them to criticaleducation, training, and other supports and resources.

A key differentiator of Prudential's commitment: financial education and tools are embedded into the workforce development efforts the company supports so that opportunity youth are prepared to not just survive, but thrive, when they are able to access improved opportunities to realize their economic potential.

"At Prudential, we believe that to design solutions to a challenge, it's important to engage those closest to that challenge," says Sarah Keh, VP, Inclusive Solutions, Prudential Financial."Since 2019, we've worked directly with opportunity youth as our leaders and advisors. They've shown us that young people benefit the most from holistic support that includes financial capabilities, in addition to traditional education and employment training."

Prudential has also supported Aspen's Opportunity Youth Forum network in the U.S., which generates an estimated $2 billion return on investment annually. Aspen Institute's research has found that for every $1 spent on opportunity youth in Aspen's network, there was a $4.40 return to the community.¹

"Prudential's partnership and investment in the Aspen Opportunity Youth Forum has been compelling and catalytic. It has helped change the life trajectory for thousands of young people in the U.S., while also helping us deepen our support for the work happening in Newark [New Jersey] - in the company's own backyard. Prudential has supported a movement for greater opportunity for the rising generation that simply would not exist without their unprecedented and thoughtful investment(s) across the globe," says Stephen Patrick, vice president and executive director of the Aspen Institute's Opportunity Youth Forum.

What's next
"Prudential continues to support opportunity youth at both a global and local level, including through PGIM Real Estate's longtime support of YouthBuild Global, an organization that focuses on helping low-income young people acquire the skills needed for construction jobs. We hope our work with opportunity youth inspires other companies to join us on our mission to expand access to wealth building and economic mobility, forging a prosperous future for all," says Keh.

¹ The Opportunity Youth Forum: Forging a National Network to Advance Equitable Systems Change - The Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions (aspencommunitysolutions.org)

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