Youth Have Opportunities for Employment or Career Readiness (Worcester County) (Formerly School Transition)

Percent of Youth Ages 16-24 Not in School and Not Working

Current Value

17.3%

2018

Definition

Line Bar

Story Behind the Curve

Transportation:
- to and from education and job training
- to and from employment
Culture:
- Seasonal employment
- of communities and families:
  - case study: change in family culture when youth go on to education; outside the norm; tension within the family: "are you becoming uppity"
- - Parent who have not experienced higher education they may be less able to help their children; may not have the knowledge about higher education
    - sometimes parents are afraid to take the risk; and are afraid for their children
  - May be a need for the child to help out at home, so don't want them to go off for education and/or work
- Has been a change in culture from seeing education as a "way out" to now not seeing it as much
- Sustainability beyond High School
Opportunities for education; employment and empowerment
- competition for jobs: J-1 visas for jobs in Ocean City (available for longer-term employment)
  - if youth aren't engaged in these structures from an early age
  - Parent who have not experienced higher education they may be less able to help their children; may not have the knowledge about higher education
    - sometimes parents are afraid to take the risk; and are afraid for their children

Partners

Grant Holders:
- Telemon
- Shore Up
Transportation Providers: Shore transit, taxis
Faith based communities
County commissioners
Chamber of Commerce in all the communities
Veterans and Seniors providing mentoring to these youth (in taxicabs)
Board of Education
Rev. Jenkins in Pocomoke
Mayor, Town Council in Pocomoke; Business leaders
Maryland Workforce Exchange: portal to look for work
Higher Education: UMES; Salisbury; Wor-Wic; Del-Tech; Eastern Shore Community College;
Jail

What Works

Off the wall ideas:
- Magic Bus: mobile bus to hit all the hotspots; on the bus will be peer leadership
- "on the bus"! (Education, Employment and Empowerment)
- Businesses providing vouchers for travel; provide incentives from the governmentBuilding a Youth Service Center in Pocomoke in the old Rose's building
Currently working:
- Adult Education
- Telemon
- Shore UP
- Mobile One Unit: stops at all the libraries in the counties; Mike Pennington can arrange wherever you need
Missing from the current programs:
- mentoring
- case management: addressing some of the issues a youth may be dealing with.
- facilitation of navigating the working world/educational world
Needs to be a defined plan identifying responsibilites and the role of each of our partners
- we have the community resources to help the youth wherever they are. find the youth and connect them with resources.

Strategy

Peer Leadership as a focal point
- Partnership with local colleges and people in the workforce to provide mentoring for youth in the opportunity youth age group; open to every student
Incentivize businesses to go into the schools to help middle school and high school students
- tax breaks for businesses
- Liability protection for the businesses (will have to go through legislation
- Sub-vendors of Telemon
Transportation plan:
- Needs assessment (see research agenda)
- RFP for transportation solutions and business models from transportation contractors
Youth Service Center
- Tap in with Faith Based Communities
- Find kids in school who are on -track to graduate but don't have a plan for what they will do after graduation
  - idenify indicators of kids at risk to be not working and not in school after high school
  - interview these kids to identify kids who are already in the opportunity youth population
- Establish the center in one of the "hotspots"
- Word of mouth to the opportunity youth from the youth at risk to become opportunity youth
- Services: use people from various agencies and businesses; tap into partnerships that we already have and talk with youth.
  - Resume building
  - Life Skills
  - Bring in people from business and talk about what these jobs are like (restaurants, retail, etc)
  - Provide internships for kids
  - Transportation

Data Discussion

Next year, the drop-out rate will be raised to 18 so this will impact the "curve" and forecast of the data

Research Agenda

What is the data on the break-down of opportunity youth:
- throughout the county; will we see "hotspots
- Is this impoverished areas? Or kids taking a "gap year"
- By age:
  - 16-18
  - 22--24
Transportation Needs Assessment of opportunity youth:
- Where are they?
- Where do they need to go?
- Identify trends

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