Leadership Beyond Boundaries: Unifying Fragmented Services in Youth Re-Engagement Through Strategic Systems Thinking
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Authors
Nixon, Terrance
Issue Date
2026
Type
Dissertation
Language
en
Keywords
opportunity youth , strategic leadership , systems thinking , youth re-engagement , at promise youth , service integration , educational leadership , life course theory , cross-sector collaboration , educational equity , organizational leadership , alternative education , workforce development
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Abstract
Opportunity youth, young people ages 16–24 who are unemployed or unenrolled in school, face ongoing exclusion from educational, workforce, and social service systems. In Eastern Washington, this fragmentation is exacerbated because service networks lack the strategic leadership necessary to bring accountability, resources, and vision across sectors. Systemic disconnection not only undermines individual trajectories but also carries long-term social and economic costs. This qualitative instrumental case study examined how strategic leadership practices influence service integration across youth reengagement systems. The central research question explored how leadership practices contribute to integration across fragmented systems, with sub-questions focusing on leader perceptions, strategies employed to align education, workforce, and human service organizations, and the experiences of youth in service delivery. Fifteen participants were purposively selected from three groups: strategic leaders, frontline staff, and opportunity youth ages 18–24 currently or recently involved in re-engagement programs. Data were collected through semistructured interviews, document review, and secondary data from youth satisfaction and system integration surveys. Semistructured interview protocols served as the primary data collection instrument, and data analysis was conducted through manual thematic coding that integrated both inductive and deductive strategies. Triangulation, member verification, and audit trails were used to establish trustworthiness. Six themes emerged from this study. Opportunity youth experienced system misrecognition and institutional rigidity. Fragmentation was most visible at transition points. Re-engagement was shaped more by developmental disruption than academic deficit. Collaboration existed across organizations, but shared coordination infrastructure was limited. Leadership practices either buffered or amplified fragmentation. Time served as a cross-cutting equity factor influencing youth access, continuity, and engagement in re-engagement processes. Across participant roles, misalignment between system pace and youth readiness was consistently described. These results suggest that fragmentation reflected structural misalignment and leadershipmediated coordination gaps rather than a lack of services. Recommendations include strengthening cross-sector intake systems to support student transition, establishing transition-focused coordination structures, and incorporating developmentally responsive pacing into program design. Future studies could examine the longitudinal outcomes of coordinated re-engagement models and strategic leadership practices in similar geographic contexts.
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States
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openAccess