Juan Iraheta, 19, and Delaney Allen-Mills, 17, have little in common. Iraheta dropped out of school in 10th grade. He lives on the outskirts of Washington with his girlfriend and their 2-year-old son. Allen-Mills lives with her parents in McLean, Va., an upper-middle-class suburb of the nation's capital. She's a senior in high school, takes photographs for the school newspaper and is applying to college. What the two teens share is a lack of employment opportunities both Iraheta and Allen-Mills have struggled to find work.
Last year, Iraheta was working for electronics...