A good 50% of the reason I’ve disappeared is in great gratitude to the Office of Economic and Workforce Development and the Japanese Community Youth Council. After volunteering a few hours with San Francisco YouthWorks, 10-hour weeks of casual employment, bumped up to 15-hours demonstrated not only my desperation for employment, but also the talents that would come to serve 186 at-risk youth throughout San Francisco.
It came as an honor, really, when the directors of San Francisco Youth Works and the Mayor’s Youth Employment and Education Program came to me with the scariest of endeavors. Understanding my fear and inexperience of direct service (to inner-city youth, yikes) and my knack for talking my way into anything I wanted, they paired me with a fellow JCYC youth program alumnus to design our very own youth employment program for the summer - San Francisco Bridges To Success!
Now it may not be common knowledge that the San Francisco Unified School District and City College of San Francisco were unable to provide summer school. That means that millions of youth were left to wander the streets (an exaggeration) against the common belief that summer should be utilized to “get ahead.” But SOMEHOW, money came to JCYC, experts in youth employment, in every direction to fund the Summer Work Experience Program, the Summer Youth Employment Program (for 17-21 year old), and our own SFBTS (16-18 years old.)
Here I learn, first-hand, the bittersweet Workforce Investment Act, which provided this great opportunity, comes with the expense of hours wasted monitoring, reporting, and auditing. I don’t mean to knock the program, but there were many times where things were asked of me that I regrettably saw as time that could have been spent assisting youth and ensuring actual programmatic accountability – rather than chasing down documentation of it. I suppose that is why I served as the project manager and not any sort of direct service or case management staff, initially at least. But we carry on.
The program operated through 4 (briefly 5) subcontracted community-based organizations. On our side, my partner and I were ensure our program met the contract’s requirements: 50% academic enrichment and 50% work experience revolved around Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). This meant developing STEM-related curriculum for a 6-week program for the CBO’s to conduct, provide pre-job readiness training and a placement for them to work as temporary subsidized workers.
A teams of us was 100% behind worksite development meeting the challenge of there just not being enough workplaces in San Francisco willing to accept temporary assistance from a high school youth because it meant training the skill-less while tolerating unreliable and, often-times, poor work ethic for not much reward. Not to mention there were several programs looking to put youth to work – must of had over a thousand youth came from JCYC’s programs alone! Not to mention that a good chunk, about 40 participants spoke little or no English and needed a supervisor that could accommodate them.
Our second challenge was designing curriculum that would re-engage a young person who has already suffered disappointment and lack of goals/motivation from our low-budget public school system. Under the ambiguous guidance of MYEEP’s director, we provided activities aimed at real world application of STEM concepts: the science of the human body and engineering of a bridge through building miniature models, technology through basic computer skills, and math through understanding budgets, saving, investing and credit. The 48 hours we wrote up sounded like a fun and educational summer – the bureaucratic delays complicated their execution.
What was supposed to be mid-way through the program, many youth still without worksites attended academic enrichment workshops 100% of the time, upset because they had signed up for a summer job – not what it felt like to them: summer school. I finally stepped out of what we called “The War Room” and into the Bridges battlefield, observing youth workshops and visiting youth worksites. Worksite development continued even past program end dates, when another program ended the supervisors were offered interns from our program as replacements. At the programs proposed end date, August 13, youth continued to enroll and sub-contractor contracts extended. We eventually met our numbers and my boss alleviated my concerns with, “we succeeded - kids were working.”
From the standpoint of the community’s mission, the youth were receiving a beneficial service that they would not otherwise have – learning English for those that couldn’t, positive adult interaction for those that lacked it, and making money to support their newborn children or impoverished parents. I, a stranger to the environment, was there to ask what other support I could provide them around their career and education goals, which I soon became the sole source of which they would receive them.
The summer was over, my team dispersed into new full-time opportunities, my partner shifted programs, my new partner moved to New York. As our sub-contractors checked out of their responsibilities, I checked into direct service. I used the brainstorming sessions I held during workshops to design post-program events that I had a bit more quality control over.
The number one concern, as Bridges was ending, was if there were more jobs available. As an expert job searcher (ask anyone!) I looked religiously for opportunities suitable for them - an email came to my inbox from a little organization called MatchBridge. Another city funded program (DCYF), MatchBridge, with my best explainer hat, does not guarantee jobs but rather has connections to employers give its members, young people that pass screening requirements, to have an advantage in their job search. Speaking to two young ladies and at their request for job search assistance, I provided one-on-one coaching to assist them in joining MatchBridge and access their wide array of holiday retail opportunities. Following the successful one-on-one pow-wows, I strengthened ties with the MatchBridge staff and direct all my impressionable youth to join and take advantage of their services! The beauty of this particular service - they aren’t youth programs, they are real jobs and connection to real employers.
After hearing them announce their career interests: Real estate! Cooking! Music recording! Cosmetology! Nursing! I began planning our first event that would bring them all together – the Career Exploration Speaker Series. Determined to give them exactly what they asked for, I gathered panelist and youth program representatives from six industries: 1) Visual Performing Arts and Multimedia, 2) Culinary Arts and Hospitality, 3) Health Care, 4) Health Care, 5) Architecture and Construction, and 6) Law and Law Enforcement, and wrapped up the week with an overview of College options. With over 50% of the contact information I had being out-of-date and little/no leverage to convince them to attend, the event drained every bit of passion I had for helping people who just did not want it. It took the one-week holiday from the office to really recollect and remember why I was doing this, and I can really attribute my revival to one young woman from the program.
Back up to Mid-December, SF YouthWorks released their application recruiting new interns which allowed me to dangle a new piece of bait to youth to allow me to assist them – I had jobs! One by one they requested one-on-one assistance to complete their SF YouthWorks applications, which generated more interest in joining MatchBridge as well. I met with several youth, and some of their friends too, and learned about where they came from and where they hope to be one day.
One young woman expressed interest in law and becoming a Public Defender. I, exploring law myself, casually mentioned my hope to observe the courts the following week to learn a bit about the experience. The night before my intended visit, I received a text from her around 11pm, “When are we going to court.” I let her know that my plans had been cancelled since my friend couldn’t make it anymore – but we decided to go and figure it out ourselves.
We spent the morning at 850 Bryant, in-and-out of court rooms, chasing down an attorney to ask her questions, talking to a young couple on their sentencing day - you know, the way I like to spend my days off work. She kept saying they were there for the paycheck and didn’t understand they had someone’s life in their hand; I point out the stack of files and that a Public Defender could potentially have hundreds of clients that weren’t cooperative, switching all the time. We sat in on a good one too, almost like a television show, but my familial obligations restricted my time. I was honest with her, when she said Public Defenders didn’t bring their A-game when it came to their clients about how countless disappointment killed the energy I once had. The opportunity to chat with her definitely brought it back.
That brings me to now, where the past two weeks have been focused entirely on one-on-one job search assistance for several participants (and sometimes their friends) and sometimes on the weekend. This month, AACE Talent Search advisors had generously volunteered their time to provide Financial Aid workshops for my group – with very little interest in this assistance we only offered this once.
I know that I must keep bringing my A-game for the youth that have no other source of this kind of assistance and I’m very happy with the connections I’ve made with some of them. I’ve just got to handle it - one step at a time.
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