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Programs help youth strengthen skills, open doors
By DUANE M. ELLING
A warm July morning finds visitors to CampNESK -- a summer program for children ages 4 to 11 years -- greeted by a rising wave of sound.
Several youngsters on an outside basketball court are calling to friends, chasing balls and jumping rope. Indoors, the halls of the former parish school in Flint vibrate to the noise of arts and crafts as a dozen talkative kids use hammers and nails to build book holders they will decorate and take home.
For some teenagers, working in such a boisterous setting might seem an unlikely way to spend a summer. But Patrick Collins, 17, who assists at Camp NESK, considers the experience to be among the best -- and most important -- of his life.
“Working with so many little kids is teaching me how to be patient,” he said with a smile.
“I’m also learning how to be a good leader on the job, how to be professional and how to work as part of a team. And those skills are going to be really helpful to me in the future.”
Collins, who will be a senior at Hamady High School in the fall, hopes to pursue a career as a nurse anesthetist.
He is one of many teens in the Mott Foundation’s home community of Genesee County who -- with the help of local youth development programs -- use their out of school time to gain important life- and career-related skills and experiences.
Among those programs are the Summer Youth Initiative (SYI) and the Youth Empowerment Program (YEP).
The SYI, launched in 1995, is coordinated by the Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce. The 10-week program helped nearly 400 youth ages 14 to 18, including Collins, gain paid summer employment in 2007. Most worked with area nonprofit organizations, such as the North End Soup Kitchen, which produces CampNESK.
Participants in the SYI also volunteer at least one day during the summer with community service projects and engage in learning activities designed to promote career and leadership preparedness.
Flint STRIVE, a local workforce development initiative, has offered programs to area young people since 2001. It launched the YEP in 2007, incorporating the attitudinal training and job preparation activities found in the adult STRIVE curriculum with youth-focused leadership development, career exploration and paid internships in both the public and private sectors. A total of 25 youth ages 14 to 18 participated in 2007.
Mott grantmaking related to the SYI has totaled $6.3 million since 1996. The Foundation’s support of youth employment programs at Flint STRIVE has totaled $157,124 since 2006.
Building employment skills, experience
Core to the approach of both programs is helping young people prepare for success in the workplace.
The SYI provides such training, in part, via TeenQuest, a pre-employment program for youth ages 14 and 15.
Participants engage in a variety of workshops, role-playing scenarios and other activities designed to help them better understand the labor market. The topics range from arriving at work on time and dressing appropriately, to communicating effectively with co-workers and handling interpersonal conflicts.
The program also helps students explore the vital connection between completing school and launching a career by linking the SYI experience to their formal educational development plans. The plans -- an initiative of the Genesee Intermediate School District -- are designed to prepare youth throughout the county for future study and work in one of six promising careers: arts and communications; business management, marketing and technology; engineering, manufacturing and industrial technology; health sciences; human services; and natural resources and agriscience.
Charmael Gordon, 15, says TeenQuest’s comprehensive approach helped prepare her for a summer job alongside Collins at CampNESK.
She says she learned “about being a good leader, about stepping up and taking responsibility for getting things done.”
“It also taught me about working as part of a team, no matter who is in charge,” Gordon said. “And I’ve learned that I can be both a good leader and team worker, which will make me a valuable employee in the future.”
The sophomore at Flint Northern High School plans to attend law school.
The SYI seeks to strengthen that emerging sense of leadership and responsibility among young people via the Mott Foundation Leadership Academy, an advanced training component for 16- to 18-year-olds, as well as 15-year-olds who have completed TeenQuest. Participants engage in a range of activities designed to increase their self-confidence, improve their problem-solving skills, and build their capacity to provide others with direction and guidance.
Rhetta Hunyady, group vice president of operations and employer education and training connection at the chamber of commerce, says employers are challenged by the changing needs of a global, technology-driven economy. As a result, they look for workers who possess not only the technical abilities to get a particular job done, but also strong leadership, creativity and communication skills.
“Candidates with those talents often have a competitive edge over other applicants,” Hunyady said. “TeenQuest and the leadership academy offer young people the opportunity to build that skill set, which they’ll be able to depend on far into the future.”
Practicing in a real-world setting
Jon Manning,* vice president of Flint STRIVE, notes that helping young people bring such abilities into the workplace is also a key focus of the YEP.
Once participants complete that program’s workplace preparedness and personal development components, they interview with local employers for possible job placement.
Those interviews, Manning says, allow youth the chance to practice their new presentation and communication abilities in a real-world setting, where landing a job, gaining experience and earning a paycheck are tangible rewards.
Youth in the YEP also can participate in the program’s Freedom Schools component, which offers an intense exploration of cultural awareness, personal growth and character development, communication skills, and leadership and community activism. Participants also have access to academic tutoring and college preparation assistance.
Manning says such learning opportunities continue when the youth enter the workplace. Employers that participate in the YEP work with the young people to develop their skills in team building, leadership and conflict resolution. And program staff members frequently follow up with both the youth and their employers to identify areas of concern and possible strategies for addressing them.
“Our goal is to create positive relationships between the kids and local businesses,” Manning said, “helping each discover the opportunities and resources that the other has to offer, and supporting both in meaningful ways. This ensures that everyone has a positive experience.”
Sonya McLaurin, director of the Flint city attorney’s Victim Advocacy Program, is a staunch supporter of that approach. The court program provides summer employment to local youth through the YEP.
She says participants consistently present a positive attitude toward work, as well as a willingness and capacity to accept constructive criticism, learn new and difficult tasks, and take personal responsibility.
In return, McLaurin says, young people develop their employment skills and learn that “the reality of work is that it can be difficult, but also very enlightening and rewarding.”
“The kids develop a better understanding of the world around them and the difference that they can make in it,” she said. “The YEP does a wonderful job of getting them started in that direction, and we can then help reinforce their growth and development.”
Impacts grow, ripple throughout community
Helping youth draw upon their emerging job-related skills and experiences to create success in other aspects of their lives is also an important goal of both the YEP and the SYI.
Manning says some young people begin the YEP focused almost solely on the prospect of earning a paycheck. This isn’t surprising, he says, because many come from families that are struggling financially.
But as youth go through the program, many start to experience growing self-respect and self-worth, the discovery of previously unknown talents and aptitudes, and the satisfaction of having completed a job.
The result, Manning says, is a meaningful shift in participants’ attitudes toward themselves and the world around them.
“Many of these kids come to us skeptical about their future, regardless of their prospects for employment,” he said. “Programs like the YEP help them to rebuild their outlook on life and develop the will and drive to make a new future for themselves.”
Hunyady agrees. She says parents and caregivers of SYI participants often tell her that, as a result of the program, their children have become re-energized about education and are exploring meaningful life and career options.
“The adults are simply awed by the positive changes that come over these kids,” Hunyady said.
Such is the case with Deric Hannah, 17, a YEP participant and senior at Flint Northern. He plans to attend technical college and pursue a career in video game design.
His summer job at T3 Promotions, an advertising and marketing agency in Flint, allowed him the opportunity to get a head start on his life goals. He expanded his graphic design experience by working with several computer software programs. He also learned about the development of various products for print, Web, radio and television, and assisted in the construction of sound stages and video facilities.
While his future aspirations are high, Hannah readily admits that, without the YEP, his life could have gone in a less favorable direction.
“A lot of kids from my school didn’t have anything to do with their summer, so they just hung out, which can get you into trouble,” he said. “I thank God that I found something good to do with my life, instead of being out there and doing nothing.”
Kara Ross says the positive impacts of programs like the SYI and YEP extend well beyond their young participants. The entire community, she says, stands to benefit.
Ross is director of programs and agency relations at the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan, a Flint-based organization that provides low-cost pantry items to nonprofit agencies and other programs serving low-income families and neighborhoods.
The food bank has hosted summer employment opportunities for SYI participants since 2004, including 15 young people this year. The youth sort and process the arriving pantry items and prepare outgoing shipments.
Those shipments increase significantly each summer as the food bank coordinates breakfast and lunch packages to seasonal programs -- including Camp NESK -- that serve low-income children.
Ross says that, without the help of the SYI, the organization would be challenged to keep up with that intensified need.
“These kids are vital to the ability of many area nonprofits to meet the needs of the people we serve,” she said. “As a result, in addition to gaining valuable work and personal experience, they’re also making a very real difference in their community.”
Ross and other area employers say the programs also are helping to strengthen Genesee County’s economic future.
“They’re wonderful ‘sales’ features for the community,” said Rosia Murphy, a fair housing specialist in the City of Flint’s Department of Human Relations. The department hires YEP participants for summer work.
“These programs are helping to create a future workforce that knows not only how to get the job done, but also how to get it done better and with a ‘go-get-’em’ attitude,” she said. “That’s the type of workforce that employers are going to look for, which could ultimately bring new businesses to Flint.”
Tony Trischler, owner of T3 Promotions, agrees.
“These young people are key to the future of Genesee County. They have the ideas and energy. Any program that inspires a kid to want to do something -- to get skills and create new ideas -- is an incredible resource for the community.”
* Jon Manning passed away shortly after he was interviewed for this article.