Jobs Program Takes Teens and Young Adults From Systems to Careers

Teens and young adults in fos­ter care, involved in the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem or fac­ing men­tal health issues often lack the career-readi­ness skills and knowl­edge to gain eco­nom­ic self-suf­fi­cien­cy. But Young Adult Work Oppor­tu­ni­ties for Reward­ing Careers (YA WORC), devel­oped by the Work­place Cen­ter at the Colum­bia School of Social Work, is help­ing to improve their readi­ness for the world of work.

A pro­gram tai­lored for these teens and young adults, YA WORC uses an indi­vid­u­al­ized career explo­ration and plan­ning process and a struc­tured cur­ricu­lum to build on young people’s strengths and devel­op a path to sus­tain­able careers. The results have been impressive:

• In New York City, 87% of par­tic­i­pants across six fos­ter care agen­cies report­ed active­ly using the program’s skills and knowl­edge; 43% report­ed that they were working.
• In Los Ange­les, 40 pro­grams across 17 agen­cies more than dou­bled their par­tic­i­pant employ­ment rates from 22% to 54%, as a con­se­quence of the program’s career-readi­ness curriculum.
• In Rhode Island, the Work­place Cen­ter was a part­ner in Works Won­ders, a mul­ti­mil­lion-dol­lar work­force part­ner­ship that received a 2018 Inno­va­tions in Amer­i­can Gov­ern­ment Award from the Ash Cen­ter at Har­vard Kennedy School for its suc­cess in con­nect­ing young peo­ple in fos­ter care to the world of work.

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion is pro­vid­ing funds to inte­grate YA WORC into New York City’s juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem, from deten­tion through reen­try into com­mu­ni­ty life, and to expand the pro­gram to oth­er juris­dic­tions. The Foun­da­tion is also con­tribut­ing to broad­en­ing par­tic­i­pa­tion in YA WORC, includ­ing the pro­vi­sion of career-readi­ness train­ing for young peo­ple in high school equiv­a­len­cy pro­grams. Even­tu­al­ly, these ini­tia­tives can ben­e­fit tens of thou­sands of young adults, along with their fam­i­lies and sub­se­quent generations.

“Not only is YA WORC sup­port­ing child wel­fare par­tic­i­pants, it is also cre­at­ing diver­sion pro­grams to keep youth out of those sys­tems in the first place,” says Ayo Atter­ber­ry, senior asso­ciate in Casey’s Evi­dence-Based Prac­tice Group and man­ag­er of the YA WORC grant.

The roots of an inspir­ing idea

Research shows that young peo­ple under the care of social ser­vices are often large­ly unpre­pared for the world of work. More­over, employ­ment resources tend to focus on job place­ment over career devel­op­ment, result­ing in stag­na­tion in low-pay­ing jobs with lim­it­ed advance­ment potential.

A decade ago, Lau­ren Gates, senior research sci­en­tist and direc­tor of the Work­place Cen­ter, decid­ed to change this.

Focus­ing on 14- to 21-year-olds, Gates launched the career-readi­ness cur­ricu­lum in Los Ange­les, home to the largest child wel­fare pop­u­la­tion in the coun­try. Fund­ing from Casey enabled Gates to bring the pro­gram to New York City’s juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem and use pub­lic fund­ing to expand the pro­gram to young peo­ple in fos­ter care in New York City, through­out New York state and in Rhode Island. The frame­work is con­sis­tent across locales: Approach tar­get­ed com­mu­ni­ty-based fos­ter care agen­cies, juve­nile jus­tice providers and child wel­fare agen­cies, and work with them to both imple­ment YA WORC and secure fund­ing that can sus­tain the program.

Key com­po­nents

YA WORC takes par­tic­i­pants through career prepa­ra­tion and sus­tain­abil­i­ty in two phas­es. In phase one, YA WORC gen­er­ates inspi­ra­tion, explores career inter­ests and plans career paths. In phase two, par­tic­i­pants learn essen­tial social skills and gain the knowl­edge need­ed to suc­ceed in the world of work. They also con­nect with an employ­ment expe­ri­ence that allows them to put this learn­ing into prac­tice. Each phase pro­vides cru­cial resources for encour­age­ment, as well as edu­ca­tion and employ­ment support.

“The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion has been essen­tial for help­ing us devel­op the key com­po­nents of YA WORC, ensur­ing it responds to the unique needs of young peo­ple with juve­nile jus­tice involve­ment as they seek to con­nect with employ­ment,” says Gates.

YA WORC has incor­po­rat­ed oth­er inno­v­a­tive approach­es, too. Most recent­ly, the Work­place Cen­ter col­lab­o­rat­ed with Grow with Google to inte­grate Google’s online Applied Dig­i­tal Skills lessons into its career-readi­ness curriculum.

Learn about Casey’s Gen­er­a­tion Work ini­tia­tive to build rela­tion­ships between employ­ers and youth of color