Nicole Clifton on How Employers Can Help Young People Thrive

Lisa Lawson:

Welcome to CaseyCast, the podcast of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. I'm Lisa Lawson, the Foundation's president and CEO. On this show, we explore how to build a brighter future for children, youth and families. If you've been listening, you know I recently published a book called Thrive, a guide to what young people need to grow into healthy, connected adults. One of the biggest takeaways from the book is this: no single system can do it alone. Not schools. Not families. Not government. We need partnership, especially with employers who can open doors to opportunity.

Today I'm joined by Nicole Clifton, who goes by Nikki. Nikki serves as president of social impact at UPS and president of the UPS Foundation. She's an attorney by training, a champion for opportunity and a leader in UPS's global efforts to strengthen communities and empower people, including young people navigating their path to adulthood.

Here's what makes today's conversation especially meaningful to me. Before coming to the Foundation, I spent 14 years at UPS, and I used to serve in the role Nikki holds now almost 20 years ago. UPS and Casey have a common founder in Jim Casey. He started UPS as a 19-year-old, so these issues about young people were close to his personal story. In many ways, this is truly a full circle conversation about creating opportunity for young people.

Nikki, welcome to CaseyCast.

Nicole Clifton:

Thank you so much, Lisa. It's so great to be here with you today. You have been such a waymaker and an amazing inspiration to me, both personally and professionally, so this is a highlight for me.

Lisa Lawson:

I want to start with your story. You, like me, went from being an attorney to leading social impact at one of the world's largest companies. What drew you to this work and what keeps you focused on young people and families and communities?

Nicole Clifton:

Well, Lisa, I like to say I'm a recovering lawyer who found her calling. I was born in Washington, D.C. I grew up in Athens, Georgia. I am rooted in being the daughter of two educators. And they raised me on three truths: that education changes trajectories, that service is a verb and that the community is our classroom. And all of that was undergirded by faith.

And so those values took me from Howard University, back to Athens, Georgia, to the University of Georgia School of Law, where I worked in two Atlanta law firms as a labor and employment lawyer. And then I also worked for another iconic Atlanta brand at Delta Air Lines, where I was recruited to oversee labor and employment law. And then I joined UPS, where I met you and it's been ... I cannot believe that I've spent almost two decades at UPS.

In 2008, I returned to DC to work as a lobbyist after you were asked to return to Atlanta. And when I moved to D.C. in government affairs, I had to drive the UPS truck. And I think you had to do that too.

Lisa Lawson:

I did.

Nicole Clifton:

Right. Where we had to learn and gain exposure to the business at its core. And boy was that humbling.

Lisa Lawson:

It is.

Nicole Clifton:

But when you talk about what serves the [UPS] foundation, serving as a driver really etched the culture of UPS in me, that accountability, that precision, that care.

And that's the same culture that we want for our young people. Real skills. We want them to be inspired. We want them to train, to have mentors, to have an opportunity to be productive.

And so, I think when we think about why I do this work, it's probably very similar to why you stay focused on young people. We're parents. We benefited from amazing parents. My folks communicated and curated a community around me, inside my home, but also externally through organizations like Girl Scouts and 4-H. And those organizations and their love literally set the trajectory of my life in positive ways. And like you, we know that everybody's not that fortunate, but we can stand in the gap when we're intentional. And that's one of the things that motivates me every day in my job.

Lisa Lawson:

Wow. What a journey and what a beautiful way you articulated the values your parents instilled in you. And the gift we can give young people to smooth their journey into adulthood. So, there is no more perfect person to be leading this work for UPS on a global scale than you.

So, I was at UPS 20 years ago, and you have done so much to take the UPS Foundation further. Talk to us about what you're focused on these days and how that work helps to contribute to brighter futures for young people.

Nicole Clifton:

At the foundation, every initiative is designed with the next generation in mind. And as you know, we're about to celebrate 75 years. Since 1951, we've invested more than $3 billion globally, ultimately strengthening the communities and the conditions that help people grow. The work I'm leading is focused primarily on four areas, health and humanitarian relief, economic empowerment, local community engagement, which is volunteerism and planet protection, which is our environmental sustainability. We call that the HELP focus area, and it's guided by our North Star of positively impacting one billion lives by 2040. And we're anchoring that by a couple of major initiatives. Powering 30 million UPS volunteer hours and planting 50 million trees by 2030 around the globe.

I'll talk a little bit about how this protects young people and supports stable families.

Lisa Lawson:

Awesome.

Nicole Clifton:

So, through our health and humanitarian relief efforts, we've moved essential medicines and sustained cold-chain delivery so that kids can receive routine immunizations on time. When you think about UPS and where we're headed, especially as a global health care provider, someone who wants to move critical medicines, in time in very key ways, so that people can have stable lives, vaccines are at the core of that. And last year we delivered 86 million vaccine doses, many in-kind, in hard-to-reach communities because healthy kids can attend school, healthy kids can participate in sports, and they can show up ready to learn.

Under our humanitarian relief portfolio, we also are supporting several organizations around helping to prevent human trafficking. We are ensuring that our drivers are trained to see the signs of human trafficking. We are the largest private organization training our drivers to be the eyes and ears of the road, and to make sure that they're supporting safe communities and making a phone call when they see girls and boys being trafficked via the transportation network. So that's incredibly important to us.

Lisa Lawson:

That's great.

Nicole Clifton:

Under our economic empowerment partnership, we're tackling barriers to mobility by pairing mentorship and skills-building with practical applications in the classroom.

When I talk about local community engagement, we think about how our more than 400,000 UPSers can volunteer in their communities, one act of service at a time. And so to date, we've served more than 28 million hours towards our 30 million volunteer goal. And when employees volunteer with young people, it provides those folks clear examples of models that they can emulate and allies that they can go to repeatedly to support them.

And then finally, with respect to planet protection, from tree planting to resilience work, we are supporting safer neighborhoods to help kids grow up in. And we also noticed that kids love to plant trees with the adults in their lives. And so, we are supporting an Atlanta organization called the Student Conservation Association. This is a paid eight-week conservation cohort of 12 locally recruited teenagers that are led by adults and an assistant leader that are working in plant identification, trail clearing, natural area restoration and things like that. So they're able to get mentorship and career development, and then they close the season with a project around what they've learned and what the experience unlocked for them.

Lisa Lawson:

That's amazing, Nikki, to hear the breadth of what you're doing. That's one of the things I thought was so fabulous about working at a big company like UPS is that the skills that you have access to among your workforce, the breadth of your network is just so powerful and it is beautiful to see the ways you are activating that on behalf of young people.

We talk about what's essential for adolescents to grow up and make this transition to adulthood ready to be productive and thrive. And you hit on literally all of them. You talked about making sure they're healthy, making sure they are safe, and have access to employment opportunities and training, giving them a chance to volunteer and be leaders in their community, even opening windows for them into new careers like conservation that they might not have known existed before. It's fantastic to hear you doing that.

And one of the areas you talked about, your anti-trafficking work, which I know you personally led and pioneered at UPS. It has so much intersection with work we do around child welfare and juvenile justice. Unfortunately, so many young people who have been involved in those systems end up in group homes or other places where they are likely to get trafficked. And so I just think that's one of the most powerful ways we partner is that we're trying to keep young people out of places where they might get trafficked. And you at UPS are doing such incredible work to activate your network, so they can prevent trafficking. So let me just say on behalf of all our listeners, thank you so much for the incredible work that you are doing at UPS and helping those 400,000 employees and all the assets of UPS support our communities in great ways.

Nicole Clifton:

Well, it's really our pleasure, Lisa, and it takes a village. And I think to keep uplifting, especially with respect to the safety of our children, people don't realize how vicious the cycle of human trafficking is, that it's hidden in plain sight and that often it is plaguing neighborhoods regardless of zip code. But you're exactly right that a lot of children who end up in foster care are vulnerable, and that ends up being an on-ramp to experiences that no one wants for their children. And so, it's our responsibility as community leaders, as business owners and as executives, and then as leaders and nonprofits to figure out how we can wrap our arms around these kids and make sure that they are safe, because ultimately that should be their right.

Lisa Lawson:

One hundred percent. Well, thank you so much for that and your vision in getting UPS involved in that work.

Well, I want to shift a little bit and ask you to help our listeners understand from your perspective what role employers, especially a big employer like UPS can, play in helping young people build strong futures. What do you think that looks like in practice? You've talked about it a bit from the philanthropic perspective. Let's shift and talk a bit about what the company does.

Nicole Clifton:

Employers can shape young futures in two ways. Inside the operations classrooms and then outside as community partners. And so inside UPS, the classroom is really your first job, and it shows up as internships, as fellowships, as part-time roles. A lot of our UPS employees join as part-time loaders and unloaders. It's their first job in these entry-level positions. They're high-paying jobs, they provide regular systemic work and an on-ramp to benefits, which is very important for all our communities to be able to thrive. So, these fundamental first starters teach all those foundational skills: How to show up, how to be on time, how to communicate clearly and how to follow through and own your outcome. Also, how to receive feedback, which we know a lot of young people need to work with and especially our new generation of young folks, they want feedback differently. And so, it's really important for us to make sure that we're pairing real work with real coaching because that mentorship turns into confidence.

And so, as you know, Lisa, UPS has a long tradition of promoting from within, and that's a powerful ethos for young professionals who want to grow. And so, with our culture, we really say, "Well, we're going to invest in you, and you can rise from here." A few of our executives have risen up through the ranks and we're able to spot potential early on, rotate young talent and give them meaningful opportunity to invest in their growth.

As we all know, not everybody has role models close at hand. And so that's why mentorship is a lifeline, especially for our vulnerable youth. One of the ways externally that we've been showing up is partnering with Big Brothers Big Sisters. And I think you've had Artis Stevens on your podcast.

Lisa Lawson:

I did.

Nicole Clifton:

Well, that was a lovely intersection because we are partnering with Big Brothers Big Sisters, and we've supported more than 57 chapters with over $8 million in youth mentorship. And these are students who have stepped up to co-design programming including executive panels and public speaking. One of the things that really struck me is that there are still 21,000 students on a waitlist with Big Brothers Big Sisters wanting mentors. And so, the opportunity is really clear, that that corporations like UPS can pair those kids with mentors that can serve as leaders and serve as inspiration for them. And that's exactly what we're doing through our partnership with Big Futures, which is Big Brothers Big Sisters' career-readiness pathway for kids ages 14 to 25. And so we are excited to expand that program through Atlanta, Chicago, New York, New Jersey, St. Louis and Philadelphia. And we're really seeing that when youth are seen and heard and given meaningful responsibility, they don't just get jobs, they build careers, and they build confidence.

Lisa Lawson:

Oh, it just warms my heart to hear you say that. We know young people need strong, caring adults in their lives, and the ways that you are creating pathways for your employees to help them get that experience is wonderful. One of the worst narratives we have in this country is that young people don't want to thrive. They do.

Nicole Clifton:

They do.

Lisa Lawson:

They are desperate to work. To hear you talk about the on-ramp UPS provides is so critical. So many professionals get their start as a part-time UPS driver. Everywhere I've gone, I always meet someone who says, "Oh yeah, my first job was as a part-timer at UPS."

Nicole Clifton:

I get that same thing. It's amazing. It doesn't matter whether you're a big executive in a large company or someone that's an entrepreneur. I can't tell you how many people say, "I started as a loader/unloader. I started and it gave me these fundamental skills, it gave me freedom and flexibility — and then look where I am now." So it really is a pathway to success. There's no doubt.

Lisa Lawson:

It is. Young people want to work, they want adults in their lives who can help them figure out how to navigate the world. And so you are doing just a phenomenal job at UPS of helping to do that. I want to talk about something you mentioned about UPS's logistical precision. You and I both were UPS drivers. I hope you were a better driver than I was. That was not my finest hour.

Nicole Clifton:

I think I called you when I was about to get on that truck… because this was not in the plan. We both worked for the same person in government affairs, who made it very clear that we were going to get on this truck and we had to do this. And this was the way that you built “street credibility” because as lawyers, we needed to be able to make sure that we could walk the walk and talk the talk.

Lisa Lawson:

And we both had to do it during the holiday season, not during the slower period of the year. But yes, it taught me even more lessons about how amazing this enterprise is at moving packages all over the world.

One of the messages in the book that I wrote is that young people can't thrive if they're dealing with instability like hunger or housing stress or caregiving responsibilities. What are some of the ways that UPS thinks about trying to create more stability for its younger workers?

Nicole Clifton:

Lisa, that's a great question. And fundamentally, it starts with pairing a paycheck and strong wages with pathways and community so that young people can learn and work and develop and serve. Because we want to teach them that service ethos and that type of value. So at UPS, we start with real benefits, early competitive pay, health care, including zero premiums for eligible part-time union roles and paid time off and pension benefits for both part-time and full-time employees. And that takes off some of that month-to-month pressure. When young people are saying, "I can make ends meet. I can make sure that I've got health care when I'm at an age that I'm no longer on my parents' health care," if I even have the luxury of being on my parents' health care because not everyone does.

School stays within reach too at UPS. We have a great program called Earn and Learn that offers tuition assistance up to $5,200 a year and $25,000 over a lifetime at more than 100 locations. So our youth don't have to choose between today's bills and tomorrow's degree. We also want to make sure that we're building skills that stack, like structured safety programs, leadership training and our promote-from-within culture that I talked about means that many folks start in hourly roles, but then they rise up in driving, supervisory and corporate careers. And then we build community around them through business resource groups. These are peer support groups based on affinity and allyship that support kids that are juggling their school, juggling work and caregiving.

One of my most recent experiences with one of the BRGs is leading a mentorship circle for the parents and caregivers. And it's been an amazing opportunity to talk about my journey as a mother for a stint as a single mother, getting remarried, raising children who have different learning backgrounds, and when you realize that you can share those kinds of mentoring and real-world opportunities through a business resource group, it gives back a lot to our young people. But you know what, Lisa? I've gotten a lot out of it too.

Lisa Lawson:

Oh, that's wonderful. You have an incredible journey, and I am sure they are deeply inspired by what you have to share. And I'm just blown away by all the ways UPS is supporting young people. The access to benefits is tremendous. The wages are so important. That's how young people learn how to manage money when they earn it.

Nicole Clifton:

That's right.

Lisa Lawson:

And help them think about their financial stability, not just today, but into the future with access to a pension and paid time off. Something we know is so important for young people who are parents of little kids. We know how often they get sick or they have an early day and you've got to go pick them up. You are just putting in place such incredible supports to help your younger workers succeed. And then those credentials and the training programs that are going to help them, as you said, rise up in the organization and become higher level leaders. That's really what employers today need to be thinking about. How do you help folks become successful today and stable today and have prospects into the future? So thank you. Excellent modeling that we hope many more companies will put into effect.

So, we talked about young people as workers, but let's also talk about them as leaders and change makers. That's one of the pillars of our Thrive work. How does the UPS Foundation help elevate youth voice, whether it's inside the company or through your community partnerships?

Nicole Clifton:

One of the things that we see again and again is that young people are ready to lead and you just need to give them those on-ramps, right? And I talked about Big Brothers Big Sisters. We also support organizations like Girl Scouts. I serve on the board for Girl Scouts Nation’s Capital. It's the largest council with over 70,000 girl scouts who are interested in youth-led projects that build confidence and civic muscle. And we know that if we can build courage, confidence and give those entrepreneurial skills. Did you know that the Girl Scouts is the largest cookie selling program with entrepreneur skills in the nation?

Lisa Lawson:

That's awesome.

Nicole Clifton:

So that builds money management, right?

Lisa Lawson:

Yes. It builds sales and market skills.

Nicole Clifton:

Sales and marketing, making your pitch. We're now going digital and online. And so the UPS Foundation is pouring into nonprofits because we're not a direct service organization. We fund those organizations that are the experts in building and motivating young people.

And so, we always say that giving is more than writing a check. It means that you've got to combine your employee skills, their passion and their time with our logistics experts, but also making sure that we're investing in those nonprofits who are the experts. It really does take a village. And so that's what we're doing on a very systematic basis to make sure that when we put young people at the table, when we hand them the mic, that they don't just participate, that they lead, that they thrive, which is what your book is about.

Lisa Lawson:

You are right. Young people want to lead. It's little known how compassionate young people are, how much they want to see the world improved, and you're giving them opportunities to lead and to develop critical thinking skills and that's exactly what our young people need, so that when they learn to lead in small ways, maybe in their neighborhood or in their school, that can have big impacts on their leadership in work and in community in later parts of their life.

I'd love to hear a story. Do you have a story that stuck with you where you saw a young person thrive because of the intentional support they've received, whether it was through UPS or through some of the partnerships that you've worked with?

Nicole Clifton:

Yeah. I love all of the stories that we collect from our UPS employees, but one that has stuck out for me lately is one of our UPS leaders, her name is Sue Schmidlkofer.

Lisa Lawson:

I know Sue.

Nicole Clifton:

You know Sue? Of course you do.

Sue has been such an amazing example of someone who has intentionally stuck with her “little” Madison as a mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters. She was matched with Madison in the ninth grade, Lisa, and they clicked over cheerleading. They stayed matched for four years of high school. They do not share the same ethnicity, which I think is beautiful. And what changed for Madison is that Sue gave her steady mentoring. She built confidence. She hung out with her on the weekends. She brought Madison to the corporate office because we bring a cohort of young people to the office. Once a quarter we bus folks in because we realized that transportation was a barrier. And so we work with the Atlanta public school systems to bus kids like Madison into the corporate office so they can make sure they have steady interaction with their “bigs,” like Sue. And the outcome for Madison is that she graduated as a valedictorian in her class, she's earned admission to Clark Atlanta University and she's now pursuing fashion.

And Lisa, when you think about that, the consistency and access were the key. Someone in Madison's corner who asks great questions, makes themselves available and shows up. And when you talk to Sue, she will tell you that she got more than she gave. And it's just such a beautiful opportunity. When I think about the servant leadership that powers both of our careers, that's what we want to build for young people. The opportunity for them to see that potential turns into momentum and it travels with you for life, but you first have to see it to believe it. And Sue is a great example through our intentional partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of how we are partnering with a nonprofit to show young people that the sky’s the limit.

Lisa Lawson:

Oh, that is a beautiful story. Tell Sue I'm so impressed and so inspired. That is wonderful. I wrote down potential turns into momentum. I'm going to keep that in front of me in the coming years. That is a beautiful way-

Nicole Clifton:

That is yours, my friend.

Lisa Lawson:

That is a beautiful way to think about it, and I sure hope Madison enjoys continued success as she pursues college.

Well, I hate to say this, but we're on our last question. Let's say you're invited into a room full of business leaders, policymakers and philanthropists, all people who care about young people. You've got three minutes. What's one action you would want them to take, Nikki?

Nicole Clifton:

I love this question, and I gave this a lot of thought. And if I had the opportunity to have three minutes to inspire business leaders and policymakers to invest in young people, I would start by saying listen. Start with listening to them. Young people are clear about what they need and they are telling us what they need. If we are willing to listen and accept that things like managing their well-being, listening to them inspires their follow-through, how to make good decisions, how to practice empathy and kindness, how to support them, and that giving them an opportunity to stand up and grab the mic is important to them.

And we can do that in three simple ways. Make one-on-one mentoring the anchor, and then build around that by offering paid work and learn opportunities. Give short focused training and fellowships with a real project to finish. They need an outcome. I also think we need to focus on building these soft skills. You've got to build those public speaking skills, build those opportunities to be able to express yourself and to write well.

And then finally, give lots of feedback in real time. If we can model what good looks like every single day, the young people will follow. And I firmly believe that when we do this consistently, we won't just prepare workers. We are growing leaders, and that's what we want every day for the young people and the future generations that hopefully will stand on our shoulders.

Lisa Lawson:

That is brilliant. And while you started with listening to young people, I sure hope those business leaders and policymakers listen to you because that was extraordinary advice on what we can all do. I hate our conversation has to come to a close, but I know I'll get to talk to you again personally in the future. Let me thank you from the bottom of my heart for joining us on the podcast and more importantly, for the work you are doing to open doors for young people. It is simply extraordinary.

Nicole Clifton:

Lisa, thank you so much. I just can't reiterate how proud I am of you and the leadership and modeling you continued to give all of us. And you are always a UPS alum and we love you and we're proud of you. And thank you for what you're doing to help young people thrive.

Lisa Lawson:

Thank you so much. It is great having you on. And thanks to all of our listeners for joining us on CaseyCast. For listeners who want to dive deeper, you can find show notes at aecf.org/podcast. And if you'd like to learn more about my book, Thrive: How the Science of the Adolescent Brain Helps Us Imagine a Better Future for All Children, you can find it at aecf.org/thrivebook.

Until next time, I wish all of America's kids and all of you a bright future.