San Diego will soon be hiring youth to work in community service-oriented jobs – KPBS

Speaker 1: (00:00)

A new jobs program is aimed at helping underserved young people while improving communities across California. The state is putting 185 million in the Californians for all youth job Corps, where 16 to 30 year olds with a variety of challenges may get their first chance to a career. San Diego will seem more than 19 million from the program. The second largest allocation in the state. Joining me with more information about the program is California volunteers, chief service officer Josh Friday, and Josh, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2: (00:34)

Great to be with you, California

Speaker 1: (00:36)

Already has active job core centers. Why do we need new Californians for all youth job core program?

Speaker 2: (00:44)

We need this brand new program, which is a collaboration between California volunteers and local governments throughout the state, because the need is so high. We've seen this pandemic have an incredible effect on young people on unemployment and especially on communities of color. And those have been hardest hit. So this is a tough for the state to invest in not just helping our communities by creating jobs where people are gonna be serving their communities in really important ways. But this is also a chance for us to invest in people's futures and the governor and the legislature were very passionate about that. And it's why they wanted to create this program

Speaker 1: (01:17)

Who is this intended to help, but what kind of youth with what kind of challenges

Speaker 2: (01:22)

This program is very intentional about focusing on hiring the most underserved youth youth that are low income youth that are unemployed or out of school that are justice involved are transitioning from foster care or engaged with mental health or substance abuse systems. We are very intentional about making sure that we're targeting that population investing in them. We're calling on them to serve and we're giving 'em a chance for a successful career.

Speaker 1: (01:48)

And what kinds of jobs and job training will be offered.

Speaker 2: (01:52)

Every person that goes through this program is gonna have wraparound services from their city. That includes everything from helping learn how to prepare a resume to leadership training and network training. And these young people are gonna be doing a variety of critical work on issues like climate change and food insecurity. COVID 19 recovery. They're gonna be working on education disparities in communities. They're gonna be doing river cleanups, uh, and climate work, urban greening, and really a variety of work that the city deems important to the entire community, which is why we really think this is such a win-win program. It's a win for the young people who are gonna get a job that pays with dignity at a minimum of $15 an hour, often higher in some cities. And it's a win for the community because these young people are gonna be serving the community and doing work that matters.

Speaker 1: (02:39)

Tell us more about the case management for the young people involved in the program. Cause you gonna be coming in with somewhat troubled backgrounds. We

Speaker 2: (02:47)

Learned from doing research and learning about what other programs exist, what has worked, and what's not worked from best practices that it's really critical to provide wraparound services to these young people, to make sure that they have support, that they are receiving training, that when they finish the program, they have certificates with certain skills that will allow them to go into new careers. So we made sure that of the 185 million that was appropriated to cities and counties throughout California, that cities and counties had the flexibility to use some of that money, not just to pay these young people, but to also pay for these really important wraparound services.

Speaker 1: (03:23)

Now, the money for the new job Corps program, as you say, is being divided up among cities and counties, will each city be able to decide how best to use the money?

Speaker 2: (03:33)

We were very intentional about making sure that this program was flexible. We wanted to make sure that mayors and local governments, uh, were able to use this money to meet their community needs. So while we provided some guidelines, like the young people have to be between the ages of 16 and 30 and they have to meet one of the important qualifications about being low income or underemployed or justice involved, we made sure that these mayors and the local leaders had the ability to put those young people to work in a way that helped their community. So yes, we built quite a bit of flexibility into this program. And

Speaker 1: (04:08)

How long is the new job Corps program supposed to last?

Speaker 2: (04:12)

This program is funded by the legislature and the governors for the next two years and cities and local governments will have the discretion to decide whether they wanna set it up as a summer program or a year long program. But right now we're focusing on making this successful for the next two years now.

Speaker 1: (04:28)

What are your hopes for the young people who will be involved in the program, will their participation help them start a career?

Speaker 2: (04:36)

Our hope is, is that we're not just investing in young people to be able to start a and be able to be on a pathway to a successful career, but we're also inspiring them to a career in public service, to a career where they get to do work. That's meaningful to the community, meaningful and purposeful to the broader society. And we really hope that with this program, with the mentorship, that's gonna come with it with the different training. That's gonna come with it, that we're not just creating jobs, but we're creating jobs where people are committed to service for the rest of their lives. And that's what we're really excited about with this new program.

Speaker 1: (05:08)

How do young people sign up for the

Speaker 2: (05:10)

Program? Young people can sign up through their cities as the cities roll this program out, the cities are gonna be selecting the young people. And we just launched phase one of this program, which is 150 million investment in the 13 largest cities in the state of California. We're gonna be launching phase two very soon, which is for the additional 35 million to smaller cities and counties that apply through a competitive process. So if your city is one of the cities that's participating in this, you can apply through the city. Or many of the cities are also gonna be working with local CBOs, local community based organizations to provide the actual job opportunities. And you're gonna be able to apply through them as well.

Speaker 1: (05:49)

Okay. Then I've been speaking with California volunteers, chief service officer Josh Friday about the new Californians for all youth job Corps program. Thank you so much, Josh. Thank you.

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San Diego will soon be hiring youth to work in community service-oriented jobs - KPBS