The Y-Works Project Exploring Youth Employment as a Successful Pathway from Delinquency and Other-At-Risk Behaviors A Youth-at-Promise Research Initiative of the YMCA of the Suncoast, Clearwater, Florida Funded and Published by the Eckerd Family Foundation, © 2005 THE Y-WORKS PROJECT: EXPLORING YOUTH EMPLOYMENT AS A SUCCESSFUL PATHWAY FROM DELINQUENCY AND OTHER AT-RISK BEHAVIORS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Y Works project seeks to locate and establish an entry point for involving businesses as employers in youth workforce preparation. We learned from our interviews and meetings with human resources representatives and business owners that they understand that today’s youth are the workers of tomorrow, although they expressed less clarity about at-risk youth populations. They established once and for all that they agree with research findings that employers assign personal qualities, including attitude, work ethic, dependability, initiative, enthusiasm, and the like, the highest value when they select among candidates for employment. Case workers and youth informed us that they are aware of employer priorities—they listed nearly the same things as the employer community when asked to identify what employers look for when they hire. Employers we surveyed did not express bias against at-risk youth because of their risk factors, such as prior substance abuse, adjudication, poverty, homelessness, or disability. They did, however, identify authentic disqualifying deficits that may be generally characteristic of at risk youth, and as such, affect placement rates. Employers did not express sensitivity to reasons why at-risk youth may have greater difficulty than other candidates in meeting minimum performance standards like attendance and punctuality. If businesses are to be involved in helping to improve the placement rate of at-risk youth, as they say they are willing to be if certain conditions can be put in place, they believe they have the right to expect that they will be shown youth candidates who are adequately prepared by advisors, custodians, counselors, and teachers. Employers do not have a broad or deep awareness of the reasons why at risk youth may have difficulty meeting minimum standards for employment, nor are they familiar with the work or experience of youth advisors, case workers, or other youth services personnel. Instead, they tend to hold youth more accountable than preparatory systems do, and tend to regard the deficits they observe in youth as more willful and controllable than they are. Despite the fact that multiple agencies and privatized youth service providers are funded to assist in preparation and job placement of at-risk youth, the youth themselves report that when they found the job they presently hold, it was through friends, family, or random search methods like the want ads. Case workers reported that youth unemployment is affected by adjudication, transportation, family factors, availability of jobs, skill deficits, and other reasons, also citing personal qualities as influential. Both unemployed and employed youth in the survey report that case workers are not among the main sources of work and job preparatory and job search assistance. A majority of employed youth in the survey report that they value on-the-job training higher than any other performance support that their employers might be willing to provide. Since employers say they value those who value learning, this is particularly important. Y-Works Project Executive Summary Page 1 Disclosure of adjudication is a pivotal issue upon which case workers and employers disagree. We believe that it is among the most important elements of at-risk youth employment upon which all parties must agree in order for youth as well as the public to be best served. Youth should not be counseled to misrepresent their backgrounds but should be taught to represent their accountability and their rehabilitation effectively, although that may not ensure employment. Case workers report that employer discovery of criminal record is one of the main reasons youth lose a job. It is also a primary reason that case workers cite for adjudicated youth being rejected for employment, suggesting the need for case workers to become more involved in the development of a network of potential employers for adjudicated youth. We found the job preparatory and job search resources available to the youth we surveyed to be very fundamental and not well aligned with employer values that tend more toward well established personal qualities that display potential and a cultural fit with the employer organization. However, it is likely that this has to do with the structure and accessibility of social services, such as case worker accountabilities and competencies, than deliberate simplification of youth needs. That said, it is clear that youth in this category are well behind their first time worker peers when it comes to knowing the most basic job information: how to dress, how to address others, and how to complete a tax form may represent more advanced elements of work preparation for these youth. According to case workers, even the notion that they should work at all is a view that their families or custodial care providers may not support. We believe the most important finding is the communication gap among all parties to the survey. We think that there is considerable room for improvement in the way that case workers and their organizations move youth in the direction of employment, either by changing the case worker job or by adding job development responsibilities to the advocacy equation. It is critical that someone coordinate between the youth and the organizations across his or her community that might offer resources including employment. The translation of their respective needs to each other and the integration of what is learned in the vortex could make the critical difference to any individual youth, or all of them. Last, with respect to content, it is apparent to us that without long range concentration on the development of the personal qualities that employers seek when making hiring decisions, no amount of fundamental job preparation is going to make a difference to many of the at-risk youth seeking to enter the workforce. We think that a better option may be to adopt workforce preparation as one of the most fundamental objectives of residential therapeutic intervention and other youth development services. If work preparation can be integrated into youth services models and made more lasting, understandable, and appealing to at-risk youth populations, the youth of today will become highly valued and productive workers of tomorrow. Further, they will be better equipped, as such, to prepare future generations for the same thing. Y-Works Project Executive Summary Page 2 THE Y-WORKS PROJECT: EXPLORING YOUTH EMPLOYMENT AS A SUCCESSFUL PATHWAY FROM DELINQUENCY AND OTHER AT-RISK BEHAVIORS TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 2 A. Project Purpose................................................................................................................. 2 B. Project Goals .................................................................................................................... 2 II. Research on Youth Employment....................................................................................... 4 A. Research on Employability and First Time Workers......................................................... 4 B. Research on Employability and At-Risk Youth ................................................................. 5 1. Focus on Juvenile Offenders and Employment—Quantitative Findings ....................... 5 2. Focus on Juvenile Offenders and Employment—Qualitative Findings.......................... 6 III. Approach ...................................................................................................................... 8 A. Foundational Questions ................................................................................................... 8 B. Methodology.................................................................................................................... 9 IV. Findings...................................................................................................................... 13 A. Employer Intentions and Expectations ........................................................................... 13 B. Youth Intentions and Expectations................................................................................. 14 C. Youth Case Worker Intentions and Expectations ........................................................... 15 D. Disclosure—The Pivotal Issue of Trust.......................................................................... 17 E. Job Preparation, Job Search, and Job Performance Services ............................................ 18 F. Communication Gap...................................................................................................... 19 G. Program Content........................................................................................................... 20 V. Recommendations .......................................................................................................... 22 VI. Endnotes......................................................................................................................... 25 APPENDICES EMPLOYER SURVEY REPORT……………………………………………………….APPENDIX