Youth Opportunities Unlimited the Hale Building

TO PREPARE TEENS AND YOUNG ADULTS TO BECOME ECONOMICALLY (CONTINUED ON SCHEDULE O)SELF-SUFFICIENT CONTRIBUTORS TO BUILDING NORTHEAST OHIO'S EDUCATED, SKILLED, AND INCLUSIVE WORKFORCE.

A just and equitable community where every young person is ready and confidently pursuing a meaningf

Goal One: Enhance Job Readiness & Career Exploration for teens and young adults and ready to enter the workforce, pursue a chosen career path, especially in high-demand sectors, and increase civic engagement.

Goal Two: Cultivate Employer Partnerships: Y.O.U. collaborates with more employers by addressing the interdependence of workforce demand and job readiness to close skill gaps.

Goal Three: Promote Collaborative Solutions. Create systemic change with our partners and confront the cycle of poverty, leveraging expertise and evidence-based approaches to achieve equility in the workforce.

All staff is providing a training budget to continue their development. Staff review work and professional goals with supervisors of a regular basis and go through a formal review process triannually. The entire staff engage in four major training intiatives each year. Themes include Strengths Finders assessment, crucial conversations, emotional intelligence, and facing adversity. Managers study Gallup's "It's the Manager" book and discuss themes. Staff complete a Q12 survey annually and a stay survey on the work anniversaries. The DEI staff council ensures Y.O.U. demonstrates best practices amonf staff, board, and those they serve. The board meets bimonthly and attends an annual retreat with a fund development training each year.

We knew Summer 2020 was going to look very different from past years. A typical Y.O.U. summer is 2,000+ teens employed at establishments throughout the city and suburbs, working closely with their worksite supervisors and job coaches to build hands-on job skills. However, due to strict social distancing requirements, many Y.O.U. employers were unable to host teens this summer, and some families did not feel comfortable sending their children to a physical workplace. How do you teach job skills when there is no place for a young person to work? You go virtual! Y.O.U. staff identified two tools, Hat & Ladders and Project Based Learning, to bring the work to the teens. Hats & Ladders is a self-paced online tool where students explore their interests and strengths, discover potential careers, and engage in real world experiences. These four cohorts of 20 teens met daily via Zoom with a job coach to work on projects, build teamwork, and discuss job-related topics, all while earning a paycheck. Job Coach Kylie’s group focused on civic engagement and leadership skills. Each teen was tasked with identifying a problem in their community. They brainstormed about ways to find resources and how to get their message out into the community. They each came up with an elevator pitch and created ads to educate others about the problem. Alexavier Flowers identified killings and violence, poverty, police brutality, and racism. He wrote, “Racism and slavery are the root of all these issues. We were never given equal opportunity, so there are many communities that aren’t able to grow economically, causing poverty.” Job coaches also felt the online job experience prepared their teens for remote learning in the fall. In addition to securing devises they could keep from PCs for People, the coaches helped them get comfortable with Zoom and computer-based technology. As one said, “They know how to type on their phones, but using a computer keyboard is a completely different skill set.”