Innovation
Susquehanna Workforce Network Reinvents Summer Youth Program
The last time the Susquehanna Workforce Network (SWN) ran a subsidized summer youth employment program in Cecil and Harford Counties, today’s teens were young children.
“When the Workforce Investment Act came in 10 years ago, we made a decision to focus on dropout youth,” Operations Manager Linda Siegel recalled. When it became clear that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) would provide significant funds for summer youth employment programming in 2009, SWN’s Youth Council and Youth Advisory Board told the staff to “spend as much of it as possible – all of it, if you can.” The Workforce Investment Board (WIB) agreed. (The Youth Council – 20 adults representing youth-serving agencies – and the Youth Advisory Board of 10 older teens advise the WIB on youth programming; the WIB is SWN’s decision-making board.)
The region’s economy and workforce underwent a major transformation in the past decade. It was clear that SWN needed a new approach to conform to its current workforce development plan, since “everything we do now is predicated on the occupational demand framework and our school systems’ goals and objectives,” Siegel explained. “We were starting from scratch. We didn’t have a subsidized summer framework in place any longer – not since 1999. We did a lot of brainstorming.”
SWN Executive Director Bruce England consulted local elected officials for their views on a new summer program to enhance the region’s existing initiatives. They concurred with the WIB and the Youth Council: The work experiences had to be value-added, with a strong learning component; youth had to learn and apply valuable skills in demand occupations.
SWN heard in late March that it would receive just over $300 thousand from ARRA, and immediately launched a fast-track RFP process, issuing a Request for Proposals on April 1 with a bidders conference on April 6. Proposals were due May 4, the WIB review committee made its recommendations to the Youth Council the week of May 11, and on May 22 the full WIB chose six of the 14 proposals for funding. Selected vendors attended an orientation on May 29, and the program was on its way.
Vendors’ proposals had to focus on demand occupations. They needed to relate to registered apprenticeship programs or other work experience, integrate work-based and classroom learning, or offer academic and occupational linkages targeted to career pathways. Successful applicants demonstrated their capacity to deliver a program of value, and showed a solid understanding of young people from economically disadvantaged families.
SWN recruited 364 youth, of whom 254 were determined to be eligible (ages 14-24, and economically disadvantaged). The ARRA funds allowed only 125 youth to participate in the five-week, minimum-wage program. The vendors wanted those hired to feel that they had earned their slots in the program, so SWN coordinated an interview day on June 6th and invited the young people to interview with vendors for specific jobs. It was “a wild day,” Siegel reported. “We held interviews in both counties that day. We didn’t have time to do a whole lot of interview prep with the youth, but we emphasized that they needed to work on making a good impression. The interview showed that they really wanted the job; we didn’t want to give the impression of an entitlement. We’ve gotten lots of positive feedback from the parents on this whole letter-interview process. We emphasized to the parents that the youth had earned their places in the program.”
Most of the 125 youth the vendors had hired attended an orientation (June 13 at Harford Community College and June 19 at Cecil Community College), where they learned pre-employment work maturity skills. SWN also adapted and presented a workplace readiness curriculum prepared by Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, and introduced the Individual Service Strategy concept.
In keeping with the value-added work experience approach, each vendor is expected to help their young employees master a specific set of skills.
Examples of the vendors and their summer youth employment projects:
- An innovative conservation project called Boys to Men targets 14- and 15-year-olds with “lots of temptations” and provides environmental education and environmental ethics through trail maintenance, meadow planting, and pond and wetland restoration at Susquehanna State Park, in collaboration with the Harford County Sheriff’s Department, Harford County Public Schools, and a faith-based organization in Edgewood.
- Goodwill’s three-site program includes a marketing and merchandising component that supplements the normal customer service and donation receiving tasks.
- Harford Community College’s Bridge to the Trades program is an apprentice-like “trades sampler” approach focused on electrical, plumbing and HVAC.
- The Cecil Community College trades sampler for older youth (ages 20-24, and receiving TANF temporary cash assistance) places youth in childcare, construction, veterinary, administrative, and hospitality positions. SWN anticipates that this project will provide these older youth – many of whom are parents with no work experience – with a strong segue from summer employment and learning into full-time employment.
“The one thing that struck me is that I had a tremendous amount of reservations going into this, because we are a completely different WIA than we were in 1999, and I was concerned that we would not utilize these funds in a manner that would move the workforce system forward,” Siegel said. “I didn’t want to just throw money out there into the community. After talking with the community groups, I was so in awe that they shared our concerns and came up with such dynamite projects in such a short time. There is no way we could have done this without their support. They were determined to do something of value. So, after all these weeks of a lot of extra hours, I think we’re going to have superior experiences for these kids for the summer. The vendors are knocking themselves out.”
Contact:
Linda Siegel
Operations Manager
Susquehanna Workforce Network
401-939-4240
LSiegel@swnetwork.org
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