The youth were enrolled in 60 hours of remediation; curriculum focused on life skills and employment search training provided by a certified teacher. Two sessions were held; the first one was July 10th - July 21st, the second one August 7th - August 18th.
From left to right (top row): Navarre Gilbert, Ms. Kecia Brooks, Tiffany Bucher, Shawn Wingle, Stephanie Dover, Ms. Sue Pilon, Latoya Jackson, Ms. Rene Mignano, Left to right (bottom row) Laninja Cox, Joyce Elliott, and Nathan Delucia.
We worked on transportation issues, and bus tokens were given to the kids to ride Lake Erie Transit; if they were not on the bus line we used our Work First van to transport them.
The teens in the program shared responsibility for their success. We established performance standards of 90% assignments completion as well as 90 % attendance required (1 excused absence). All youth who met the performance standards received an incentive check for their participation. A major component of the program was building a resume and a cover letter. Some of the other exercises included team building, career options, budgeting, applications, interviewing, and job retention skills.
The finale of the program was a picnic in the park with an activity that promoted teamwork. The attendees worked on a virtual road rally, where they had to unscramble clues to find places on the map. The first team who finished selected a back to school backpack stuffed with school supplies. All the teams who completed the program received one of these backpacks. The participants were then asked to fill out a questionnaire and evaluate the program. Their responses were all very favorable, most of them stated they hoped this program runs again next year, because they would love to come back.
