Instead of spending their spring break sleeping until noon and hanging out with friends, nearly 60 high school students from Austin took the first step to getting a summer job.
The Westside Ministers Coalition put on its 6th annual Youth Empowerment/Job Readiness week earlier this month. The week-long event gave the students a chance to refine their resumes, practice their interview skills and network with their classmates, all while guaranteeing themselves a paid job for the summer.
Rev. Lewis Flowers said the program has been a great success. He points to the drop in juvenile arrests, which dropped from 444 in the summer of 2008 to 333 in the summer of 2009.
“This week solidifies summer employment,” he said. “And getting the youth off the streets of Austin and into a positive environment where they can earn money, is the single best thing for the kids.”
The students entered the doors Monday, March 29 excited, nervous and underdressed. But by Thursday, April 1, that all changed. This time when the teens walked in, they were dressed to impress with the boys sporting ties and dress shirts, and the girls skirts and dresses.
Beverly Gibson, a volunteer at Youth Empowerment, said the transformation that the students make from Monday to Friday is “incredible.”
“This is a program that gets these students excited about their future,” she said. “It is important to get these kids off the streets and give them an outlet and a path to success. Finding a job and earning a living is so important for the kids in Austin.”
One 17-year-old senior from Phoenix Military Academy said her expectations for the program weren’t very high on Monday. But by Thursday, Chenetta Watson said, the program brought her out of her shell and taught her to be confident.
Watson, who will be attending Purdue University this fall, said summer employment is crucial as her family cannot afford the everyday expenses of college.
“Getting a summer job takes a lot of pressure off my family,” she said. “My parents won’t have to take from the light bill to help pay for the various college expenses.”
With five brothers and sisters, Watson said she wants to be able to support herself at Purdue, and this program has given her that chance.
“If I wouldn’t have come this week, I would have just sat home and done nothing on my spring break,” she said. “It is getting us off the streets, it is helping us to do better and succeed.”
Sharif Walker, the West Side director of After School Matters, said the goal of the week is to make sure every student leaves with a job.
“It is important to get them (students) off the streets and into anything that can support them having some hope about their future,” he said. “Finding some small successes in knowing that they can achieve some different things based on the skills that they are developing.”
Donnie Taylor, a senior at Richard T. Crane High School, said it’s this type of program that gives the youth of Austin a chance to have a better life.
“It’s an important program. There are kids here that their families can’t afford to put food on the table,” he said. “It is a chance and that is what a lot of us need. This week has taught us how to market ourselves and get a job, then we can help our families out and help ourselves.”
Kay Leane, human resources manager for TTC Marketing Solutions, said the skills that are taught and reinforced throughout the week better prepare the students for their first job. She said the program does a good job of taking the fear out of an interview by giving the students confidence.
“At TTC, we interview around 500 people a year, and I can’t even count how many adults come in not knowing how to go through an interview process,” she said. “These are critical, essential tools that could be the difference between success and failure.”
Rev. Flowers said last year, the program successfully placed 95 percent of its students, with 120 finishing the week-long spring break program and 114 landing summer jobs.
Walker said the program has been a huge success in Austin but said the program needs to expand to reach more of the community’s youth.
“Austin a lot of times it doesn’t garner the same support that other communities do, especially for youth programing,” he said. “So a program like this that is directed toward youth primarily and that their main focus is essential to the community.”
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