Innovation
Upper Shore Teams Work, Talk, and Learn
The Upper Shore Workforce Investment Board (USWIB) focused its summer youth employment program on “the three things every employer wants: showing up, working as a team, and learning the job,” according to Executive Director Dan McDermott. In 20 work sites spread over the USWIB’s service delivery area, those three competencies shaped the summer experience.
A good example was the team that worked at Spring Hill Cemetery in Easton. A dozen youth, 18-24 years old, worked together to renovate this historic cemetery, which had fallen into disrepair over the years. Led by an adult leader, the team brought the cemetery back to pristine condition. They painted wrought-iron fences, and did landscaping (pulling weeds, cutting vines, and trimming around headstones). They righted tombstones and monuments that didn’t require heavy equipment.
Like the Spring Hill project, each work site had an adult crew leader who served as liaison between the youth and the employer. Having that adult leader provided by USWIB relieved the sites of any responsibility for overseeing the youth, McDermott explained, and also provided leadership and mentoring assistance as the youth learned to master the three core competencies – reliability, teamwork, and job skills.
Equally important was the Touchstones Discussion Project, a strategy USWIB uses year-round as well. Touchstones is a modular learning approach designed to help people “to seek their own voices, to listen to those of others, to build self and mutual respect, and to develop personal and institutional integrity” through discussions based on classical texts.
McDermott explained: “Touchstones trained all our crew leaders to be discussion leaders in a very structured discussion process. The youth would read a one-page excerpt from Socrates or Shakespeare about work or money and then they discussed it in the context of what they were doing on the job and how it applied to their situation. They did that every day, at every worksite. It was a good way to build a team quickly, based on learning how other people think.”
“Touchstones helped us conquer the challenge of youth learning to work well with others. We had excellent show rates and completion rates. In addition, every crew finished the projects we thought it would take them all summer to do, so we had to find new projects for them.”
As for youth on the Spring Hill crew, they completed the cemetery renovation so quickly that they moved on to other work at the Parks and Recreation Department. Half of them are currently employed in entry-level jobs (e.g., restaurant or manufacturing work) or in college. USWIB continues to work with the others to find them training opportunities or jobs.
Through a combination of ARRA funds, a welfare program grant, and a state grant, USWIB put 132 youth to work at 20 work sites spread across five counties and 1800 square miles. “We had four applications for every slot we filled, and these were all eligible kids. But we’re thankful for every penny of that money,” McDermott concluded.
Contact:
Dan McDermott
Executive Director
Upper Shore Workforce Investment Board
USWIB, 410-822-1716 X271
dmcdermott@chesapeake.edu
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