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- Youth Are Working
Youth Are Working
Voting Summary (Elevator Pitch):
Empower Empower That is our philosophy. Youth Are Working encourages youth at risk to make positive changes in their turbulent lives. These youth are asking us for more training on internet related technologies to help make them more employable
Supporting organization:
St. Francis Foundation
URL:
www.stfrancisfoundation.ca
City:
St. John's
State/Region:
Newfoundland and Labrador
Country:
Canada
Project Vision Statement & Potential Social Impact:
The goals of Youth Are Working (www.youthareworking.ca) are to provide youth aged 17-24 who face barriers to employment with the prerequisites needed to overcome these obstacles and become positive, contributing members of our community – helping them find and maintain employment, and become self-sufficient.
Youth Are Working addresses the following nine objectives in pursuing its stated goals:
- To provide youth with access to the labour market by advocating on their behalf, by providing opportunities to gain skills and work experience, and by encouraging lifelong learning;
- To ensure youth have the information, skills and work experience they need to find and keep a job;
- To observe and learn from other successful youth employment programs in Canada and around the world;
- To engage youth serving agencies to work together, to build on each others particular strengths, to offer a more successful, holistic approach;
- To engage the business community to assist youth serving agencies in the process of reintegration and rehabilitation of youth;
- To utilize the stability of a sustained funding arrangement to form solid partnerships and secure other sources of financial support, both public and private;
- To empower youth to realize their potential, to enhance their skills, to provide youth the opportunity to recognize their abilities through work experience and pro-social activities;
- To act as a catalyst, to set into operation the conditions and forces that lead to change for youth based on the understanding that change must come from within; and
- To share our model for success with other communities throughout the world.
In 2007, an indepth program review was completed with feedback from clients. Youth respondents collectively asked for more enhanced and comprehensive computer training as part of future projects. It is our intention to implement a computer training program which ultimately assists youth in becoming more marketable to future employers. By adding this component to the current program, youth will have a much better chance to move on to employment as opposed to a continuing reliance on income support/welfare and the resulting low self esteem, and anti-social behaviour it sometimes causes.
Sustainability (financial) model:
The Youth Are Working program began in 2004 with funding from Service Canada and our local government's dept of Human Resources and Employment. Funding from these agencies is used to assist 10 youth aged 17-24 facing barriers to employment each year. Our umbrella organization, St. Francis Foundation, has been assisting children youth and families for 30 years. We currently operate ten separate programs aimed at addressing the needs of the clients in areas of poverty, homelessness, youth crime, mental health, family problems, and generally youth with special needs.
Our program, Youth Are Working, is heading into its fourth year and is evolving into a model for other skill enhancement programs for youth in our community. Our current funders support funding for skills training and paid work experience placements for youth during the year. In 2006, the youth engaged in developing our new website and this has opened their eyes to the field of technology and the need to be computer literate. In our next program we hope to implement a new computer preparation and introduction to various technology component, to continue to better prepare youth for the workforce.
Funds and resources from the Netsquared Innovation Award will be the catalyst for starting this new component of our program and the results show our current funders the benefits of providing the future funding to continue this endevour.
Potential obstacles:
Funding for new equipment, resources and human resources is always a challenge to obtain. In order to implement a comprehensive program that can deliver measurable results, partners who are knowledgeable with technology are important. Currently this attachment to a knowledge based technology resource is lacking and this void can be filled by Netsquared.
Resource Needs:
We currently have ten computer terminals that each youth uses for logging on to complete job searches, completing resumes, cover letters. We use software such as CareerCrusing.com and careerwave.com for interest inventories and profiles. several of these computer terminals are out of date and were donated from a local phone company a few years ago. with new software performance needs, we would hope to replace several of these workstations.
Having updated software and being aware of software which could enhance our programs is essential to future development. We would be especially interested in learning software and employment related software.
In order to implement a computer skills program into our project, we would need the funding for the human resource needs of this position. Funding for an instructor as well as the funds for the resources they would need to purchase for the clients, ie work books, manuals etc.
Key Milestones:
Introduce a new computer and technology curriculum to our youth while they are engaged in the annual, year long Youth Are Working program.
Replace outdated computers and software.
Hire a computer/technology skills instructor
Engage youth in the set up of the new component and involve them in how to implement it.
Project Summary:
St. Francis Foundation prides itself on being inovative in meeting the needs of individuals facing challenging circumstances in their lives. It is our goal to meet these challenges with a modern approach, one that empowers the individuals to want more success in their lives and to move in a more positive direction. we hope to develop a new computer /technology curriculum which involves the youth in the process from development to implementation. By empowering them to be part of the process, they generally take ownership for its success and self esteem becomes limitless.
Our staff and youth will ;
hire a computer/technology instructor
introduce youth to new emerging technologies for communication, beyond MSN and windows Messenger
Have youth train in adding content to their portfolio found on our website..ie update their resume and upload it to the website www.youthareworking.ca
develop a curriculum
implement the curriculum
Evaluate its success and have youth suggest areas of improvement or to enhance.
Our recent project review of Youth Are Working completed in March 2007, highlighted a need for this enhancement to our program and we hope to respond to this request by past participants with the assistance of the Netsquared Innovation Fund.
