Focus on Employment

Everywhere SYVPI team members go throughout Seattle, they hear a consistent message: young people want jobs and they need the skills to secure and keep those jobs. That can be especially tough here in Washington State where, in 2012, our youth unemployment rate tied for sixth highest among the fifty states at 28.7%.  

Unfortunately, this unemployment has both short and long-term effects. According to information from the Washington Policy Center, youth unemployment creates a "wage scar" that has a lasting impact on a worker's job prospects and future earnings. The longer the youth remains unemployed, the bigger the scarring effect, which can continue into middle age.    

To help Seattle youth gain the basic work training skills they need to enter the workforce, SYVPI contracts with the City's Department of Human Services, which in turn provides job opportunities through the Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP), the King County Superior Court-Juvenile Services, MetroCenter YMCA, Powerful Voices, and Southwest Youth and Family Services.   

One of SYEP's programs this summer was C-WEST, which took place between late June and mid-August and was open to 12 youth recruited from each of SYVPI's three Networks. Francisco Laguna, 18 years old, was one of those youth.

 

Auto service center internship teaches automotive skills

 

Three days a week Francisco attended Chief Sealth High School for vocational trade classes where he learned to test, evaluate and repair various mechanical parts and gained introductions to the skilled trades in fields such as carpentry, welding and automotive. The other two days of the week he interned at the Your Family Auto Service Center as a Skill Trade Trainee in Auto Mechanics. There he learned how to "work on cars and how to use tools properly." As part of his classroom work, Francisco developed a portfolio covering carpentry, electrical and plumbing skills, and a resume, and completed an apprenticeship application.

 

SYVPI also provided jobs through the Work Readiness Arts Program (WRAP) managed by the City's Office of Arts and Culture. The program solicits proposals from arts, cultural and community organizations interested in providing programming that links arts learning and work experiences for Seattle youth ages 12 to 18 years old. The projects are designed to strongly link arts learning with development of interpersonal, leadership and 21st century skills designed to boost academic, vocational and workplace success.

 

Group project supervisors, SYVPI Neighborhood Network staff, and city staff work together to ensure that participants learn both specific arts skills and the values of appropriate workplace behavior. One of this summer's project was the completion of the Youngstown Delridge Mural Project (pictured at top of newsletter), a 210-foot wall at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center.

A summary of all of the WRAP projects funded in 2014 is available online at http://www.seattle.gov/arts/funding/wrap_partners.asp.  

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All of us have behaviors that we would like to change, like getting more exercise, flossing regularly, cutting back on coffee, going to bed earlier. Yet many of us have trouble following through on even these simple goals. How then do we effectively support youth in making major life changes like leaving gang life or getting back into school?

In August, SYVPI team members attended two all-day training sessions on a technique called Motivational Interviewing. Motivational Interviewing is a research-based technique first described in the early 1980s. It was originally developed through work with problem drinkers but is now being applied to many other areas as well.

According to Jonnae Tillman, a consultant conducting trainings for SYVPI, Motivational Interviewing is a collaborative, person-centered form of guiding to elicit and strengthen motivation for change. It recognizes that there are two experts in the room-the interviewer and the client-and that the interviewers themselves play a huge role in whether or not the client moves from a role of thinking about change to making changes. Years ago we used to write some clients off as "resistant to treatment," Jonnae has said, and that was that. Now we know that much of that resistance is a reaction to the interviewer's style and technique. By learning what is important to the client, and becoming more aware of what we say and how we say it, we can help people move from ambivalence to more positive actions to a better life for themselves.

Jonnae will continue to work with the SYVPI team through the end of the year to strengthen interviewing skills. Informational materials about this research-based technique are available for all to view via the SYVPI website's Resources page.

  

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Safe Youth, Safe Community is a newsletter published by the Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative. Our mission is to prevent and reduce youth violence, which has disproportionately affected communities of color in Seattle, through coordinated community mobilization to identify youth at risk of perpetuating or being a victim of violence and connect them with needed support in reaching their full potential. For more information, please visit our website www.safeyouthseattle.org.