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Program expansion is future focus
By DUANE M. ELLING
Together, the Youth Empowerment Program (YEP) and the Summer Youth Initiative (SYI) brought work preparedness and personal development opportunities to about 450 Flint area young people in 2007.
However, the latter program, which advertised throughout GeneseeCounty, received nearly 3,000 applications from interested youth. And the YEP, which is marketed primarily to families participating in low-income housing programs, received more than 100 applications, roughly three times the number of young people the program can serve currently.
Those numbers reflect a significant unmet need in Mott’s home community. As a result,
expanding their service capacity is a key focus at both programs.
One such strategy being explored by the Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce, which coordinates the SYI, is bringing that program’s TeenQuest component to hundreds more youth each year by integrating it into local afterschool programs. Participants would have access to job and life skills activities and would be eligible for internships with local businesses, as well as the SYI’s summer employment program.
Flint STRIVE
, which coordinates the YEP, is exploring ways to attract the financial support needed to grow the program’s capacity. A recently launched formal evaluation will also attempt to document YEP’s long-term impact by tracking participants’ academic, personal, and career-related experiences in the months following their enrollment.
And both programs are working to expand the base of participating employers throughout the community’s private and nonprofit sectors.