Being a young person in San Antonio carries a unique set of challenges — a truth exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the city’s steady poverty rate.

In Bexar County, there’s more than 33,000 people between the ages of 16 and 24 who are disconnected from work, education, social services and sometimes family, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. These individuals are known as “opportunity youth,” and many in the city are working to fill in the gaps for them.

Rebekah Solis, 23, knows those gaps more than most. An American-born citizen, she came back to the country in 2020 from Mexico to enroll in college and tap into the “greater opportunity,” she said. However, Solis struggled a lot.

NXT Level Opportunity Youth Center is a program under the city’s Human Services departme

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