Detroit Youth Employment Consortium
DETROIT — Five years ago, you couldn’t have told the homeless, high school dropout that he’d be wearing a suit to work rather than working the corners where he sold drugs.
Today Ricky Woods, 20, regards his transformation as a testimonial: He went from chasing the paper that bought him gym shoes and clothes to guiding other young Detroiters in the ways of legitimate job-seeking and self-development.
“It’s been a wonderful experience,” Woods says of his catharsis.
Aided by the opportunity he received from a Skillman Foundation-funded, part-time position at Prevailing Community Development Corp. last summer, he continues working with the organization as a youth mentor. Woods credits the program with inspiring him to return to school – finishing with a 3.8 grade average – and later enrolling at the University of Phoenix where he studies art literature.
“Words can’t explain how truly blessed I am to be a part of this program,” says Woods. “After maybe the sixth week, it was no longer about just getting the money to buy the new clothes. It was about getting better.”
Through the recently formed Detroit Youth Employment Consortium, Skillman’s goal for summer 2009 training and development is to help as many as 5,000 other young people get “better.” Consisting of Skillman, which has contributed a $500,000 grant, the Bank of America and Knight Foundations plus community partners that include Johnson Controls, Greening of Detroit, the Student Conservation Association and Youth Employment Commission, the Consortium’s goal is to communicate, coordinate and collaborate with private-sector employers to expand youth opportunity. High school-aged Detroiters number about 70,000 of the unemployed, yet trainable, potential recruits between 14 and 18 that are the Consortium’s target.
“The overwhelming message that we get as we talk to young people is, ‘We want to work,’” says Ed Egnatios, Skillman senior program officer and Good Neighborhoods coordinator. Teenaged job-seekers frequently lament the process of taking long bus rides, filling out job applications and searching for work, but coming up short, Egnatios adds.
The Consortium’s plan for summer 2009 is to solidify funding, corporate internships and other opportunities that will significantly impact joblessness among youth. In collaboration with the City of Detroit, Skillman and its partners hope to leverage millions of dollars from President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus initiative to meet the 5,000-job goal, says Egnatios.
“It’s really to build a three- to five-year effort,” he says. “We tend to emphasize ages 14 to 18, but the city is also hoping to include those up to age 24.”
At least one-third of possible employees identified for recruitment are residents of the Skillman Good Neighborhoods districts that contain Detroit’s largest numbers of youth.
Skillman’s 2008 summer program “was really a series of pilots,” adds Egnatios. Last year’s employment effort placed young people in hourly or stipend learning positions that ranged from jobs with arts organizations to participating in youth groups and sociology projects. The emphasis for 2009, Egnatios says, will be on “quality employment that aids youth development. That could be a great job, or it could be academic tutoring in the morning, going to college sites in the afternoon and doing community service maybe two or three days a week.”
Despite national economic challenges that have even reduced job availability for more mature adults, Egnatios says the Consortium’s plan benefits from 2008’s commitment by programs and organizations that pledged to hire youth again. As in the case of Woods, Egnatios says Skillman has watched employment translate to academic and self-improvement.
“This has not happened in quite a long time that leaders in the community call on businesses to hire young people,” says Egnatios. “We have been so impressed with the City of Detroit and the State of Michigan and their openness to this collaborative and innovative approach to helping youth. It’s about creating more sustainable youth employment opportunities than has ever been done before.”
Shuna Hayward, vice president of programs and development for Detroit’s Youth Employment Commission that oversees the Consortium’s jobs initiative, agrees.
“I just love hearing the stories from the young people at the end of the summer of what they got out of this experience, what they might’ve been doing otherwise had they not had this experience, and what they intend to do with it moving forward,” says Hayward. “From a big-picture perspective, this Consortium approach will certainly help to raise the visibility of youth employment.”
Through a major Skillman grant and other resources, 34 community agencies hired youth last summer, while up to 100 organizations and businesses may participate this year. Agencies apply for grant funds to hire the young adults who undergo an interview and screening process before beginning training, Hayward says.
“Everyone has an investment in it,” she adds.
Chaunci Cline, executive director of Prevailing Community Development, says the Consortium’s effort reinforces a top priority for their organization. Prevailing serves youth and families in Skillman’s Chadsey-Condon neighborhood including West Warren and Livernois avenues, and West Grand Boulevard.
“Last year, we gauged that we served approximately 1,300 young people, directly and indirectly, including after-school programs for tutoring and mentoring, along with family counseling, intervention and referrals,” she says. “The summer piece is really an added value ... Once those young people develop a work ethic, they’ll work for life.”
Prevailing, which also oversees the West Warren Business Association, trains youth in resume-writing, computer literacy and job preparation every 10 weeks, sending them to employment sites at markets, offices and restaurants during summer months.
Those who advance, as Woods has since the days when gym shoes were his prized possessions, go on to teach others in youth mentor capacities. Along with support from friends and co-mentors like Dereon McCoy, Donta McCoy and Shawn McKinney, Woods says the work itself is life-changing.
“When I talk to other young people who say all they want to do is make money hustling, I tell them, ‘I used to be the same way,’” Woods says. “When they see someone their age doing well, they believe they can do well, too.”
— By Eddie B. Allen Jr., a Detroit-based freelance journalist