Jobs and Training for Poor Black and Latino Youth

 While the lack of skills of young adults is clearly an issue that needs to be remedied, there are three other critical issues that are rarely addressed – employer discrimination, the hidden labor market, and the segregated communities that many poor young adults are forced to survive in.

 

Employer discrimination not only encompasses the obvious lack of diversity in the workplace, but also includes the ill-treatment of young adultsonce they are within the company. Preconceived notions, stereotypes, and bias, play a huge part in the manner in which employers select their employees, and the often undue scrutiny to which young black and Latino males are subjected. These obstacles don’t make the corporate ladder hard to climb, but rather make it unreachable.

 

Though we’ve all heard of the “good ol’ boy” network, mainstream society refuses to openly acknowledge its existence, often promoting the façade of equal opportunity employment in public, while opening back room doors for their chosen candidates. This hidden labor market snatches employment opportunities away from African American males that most times they were never even made aware of in the first place. The existence of this exclusionary network forces these poor young adults black men to fend for themselves in an already diminished job pool.

 

Our inability to deal with these issues of inequality, cultural competence, and the structural issues that impact the economic life changes of the youth we serve is a main reason why young people are not feeling our programs in the first place. In a country with only 250,000 publicized slots for 5.4 million out-of- school youth, our programs should not have a recruitment and retention problem.

 

I will give it to you straight no chaser. It doesn’t matter who signs your youth development certification credential, unless the aforementioned issues are dealt with, we are not ensuring jobs for the youth in our service, but rather for ourselves, the middle class professional youth service worker. The truth of the matter is that the majority of middle class youth workers are youth culturally incompetent.

 

At a recent conference where I spoke about the need to do basic things like change our voice mail system to make them a little more appealing to youth, one youth worker told me that employers are not interested in hearing youth culture when they call his office. I’m sure he meant well, but it is this type of thinking that keeps young black males estranged from their programs, but at the same time confused by society’s message. A particular example of this is Nextel’s commercial that states “WHERE YOU AT????????” On the surface this message indicates that Nextel gets it, that they know how to reach the young people. The underlying message, however, is that of suburban America telling young black males, “We can use your culture to draw you in and take your money, but we don’t want you working here.”

 

“If you can’t find the solution, it’s because you can’t see the problem, and if you can’t see it, how can you fix it?” If this statement that I use in many of my speeches is remotely true, then for the past 40 years the workforce development policy has been in need of laser eye surgery.

 

Training has been a cruel hoax on the poor and Negroes, as the trained are not placed on jobs and are shifted to other training programs or allowed to drift in the limbo of the irregular marginal economy. -Dr. Martin Luther King

 

If Dr. King had this type of insight in the sixties, why is it that we are still floundering around using the same ineffective methods, looking for a solution that is right in front of us? When is someone besides the young person going to stand up and say, “This isn’t working?” That time must be now. Youth service providers must shake off the cobwebs of their old systems, clear their goggles, and advocate for the following changes:

 

1. Increased Job Creation for Poor Young Adults. The emphasis here has to be jobs now, permanent jobs. Given the incompetence of the middle class youth worker, the lack of hope to address this competence, the unwillingness of employers to hire young adults, especially young black males, and the current economic crisis, it is imperative that we employ a nation of Young Adult Human Service Workers (Peer Support Workers (PSWs)) to provide much needed services in the battle for economic opportunity for America’s youth. PSWs can serve a role in human services that the middle class youth worker can’t. They can reach the youth because they haven’t forgotten what it takes to reach them. PSWs can: · Get a credible message out in the community where the youth are. They’re willing to go to the natural environments at times when the middle class youth worker does not want to be present. ·Attend weddings, funerals, cook-outs, krump battle sessions, showing their interest in the things that interest youth while promoting the FEO message at a time when the message will be well received. ·Inform and train the workforce and education system in how to respect the community. ·Reach the hard to reach because they don’t have to validate who they are and why they are there.

 

The PSW position can be invaluable if given the latitude and resources necessary. The PSW position must be integrated into every budget and made into a full-time permanent position with room for advancement into counselor, case manager, job developer, and director positions. Advancement must not rest on the acquirement of any traditional degrees, however. Non-traditional pathways to higher position must be created and legitimized by the research community.

 

2. Workers Rights Training. This training is a crucial part of equipping youth and yet is often overlooked within employment programs. Information regarding what youth should expect and what is expected of them inside the workplace must be integrated into every workforce curriculum and program. See my last article – The Forgotten Competency Workers’ Rights.

 

3. Office of Youth Cultural Competence. The creation of this element within a program is imperative in order to gauge, monitor, support, and sanction the use or non-use of youth culturally competent educational and workforce approaches within workforce investment areas and school districts. The focus must be on reaching these youth and boosting them into success rather than on satisfying the needs of employers who don’t want them and community colleges that can’t keep them.

 

The bottom line is that unless we are willing to step out of our collective comfort zones and embrace the culture where our youth reside, we are going to continue to lose them through the cracks. The only question is will we be the ones creating them?

Solving the Youth Unemployment Problem

 

By Edward DeJesus

As a youth workforce development professional for the past 20 years, I have rolled with the punches, promoting and carrying out the order of the day in the effort of preparing youth for the employment world. First, I was told to emphasize pre-employment work maturity competencies, then focus on high stakes high standard testing.  From there I was prompted to help build an employer demand driven workforce system. And now — Green jobs.  At this stage, I have grown weary of following an uninformed agenda. How is it that those who don’t work in the field can make up these terms for those who do, as if they have a better read on the young people we serve?

Let’s keep it real for a minute. The young people I work with are facing challenges that reach far beyond the realm of pre-employment work maturity training.  How do you hold youth accountable to high standards when they’re dealing with the issues of a substandard living system?  How exactly do you take the hardest to serve, most at-risk youth and turn them into Lockheed Martin’s employee of the month six months later? I may be a lot of things, but magician is not one of those things, and it is that sort of unrealistic thinking that made the employer demand driven workforce system laughable. So now, I can’t help but wonder what miracle they want me to perform with Green Jobs.

Now don’t get me wrong – saving the planet and job creation is a good thing. Many of my colleagues would have me hog-tied and bull-whipped for speaking out against any job creation strategy that would put opportunity in the path of blue collar workers. And I agree. But I think there is something else that we are missing. We’re missing the power and potential of Brown Jobs. What is a Brown Job? Brown Jobs reflect the ultimate in reciprocity. These are the jobs where the unemployed are trained to help the unemployed, the poor are given the opportunity to help the poor, and the undereducated are trained to educate the uneducated.  These are the jobs where those that are forgotten and overlooked become the advocates for those who look exactly like they did once upon a time, with the most important aspect of their job is to make sure that they are not overlooked and undervalued again.

Community service, right? Wrong. Brown jobs are career tracked jobs that are tailor-made for the most disenfranchised.  Do-good students from Ivy League Colleges and Universities looking to spruce up their resumes won’t fit the bill because this type of work requires the ability to relate on a level that goes deeper then something you’ve “read about.”

Why Brown jobs? Simply put, the hard work has to be done by someone and who better than the youth who have lived the struggle? After all, the real battle often takes place in the communities well after the hours of 9 to 5. Who better than youth to fit this bill? I often ask my listening audience: “Are you willing to miss your son’s football game or your daughter’s piano recital to meet with youth leaders at 10:00 pm to organize against the local employer who refuses to hire youth within the community?” Most teachers are ready to pack up shop by 3:00 pm, so who else is going to take on this task?

There are none better than the youth we serve to fill in these gaps. Why? Because they are already there! Any youth worker will tell you that our goal is to make sure that when youth leave our program, our program never leaves them. Let’s put these youth to work in Brown jobs, uplifting their peers, community, and improving the educational and workforce system. The benefits for such an investment will be huge.  The Brown Job Industry would fulfill the following:

•  Sufficient job creation for poor unemployed youth.
• Youth entry-level positions that allow for rapid progression through a combination of experience, education, and on-the job training.
• Long-term benefit within affected communities and the society as a whole.

The only way to effectively reach the youth is with help from the youth.

This is a concept we as youth workers have embraced for several years. It only takes a couple of seconds of observation to see the enormity of the gap in communication between the average middle class educator and the young people they are supposed to assist. Instead of considering the road that has been traveled, many educators sit on their side of the table, judging the young person they see on the other side of the table.  Before properly assessing the situation, acknowledging the challenges that were overcome up to that point, they’d rather declare that they don’t have a chance. They’d rather assume there must be some sort of gang affiliation, or question why they dress or look the way they do.

What they need to say is, “I feel your struggle and I understand your hustle. Let us work together to find a way out of this mess.”

Who understands youth better than youth?

 Though I constantly hear clueless policymakers speak about reducing the drop-out rate, solving the unemployment rate, and getting more youth off the streets and into programs, they tend to get quiet when the question of where all these new teachers and support are coming from. They’re talking a good game, but if you can’t deliver, why waste the breath?

While the Bureau of Labor Statistics is unable to give a straight answer on green jobs creation, they sure know about the growth of human service occupations.  With a 34% increase in the next few years, jobs will be plentiful. The number of social and human service assistants is projected to grow by nearly 34 percent between 2006 and 2016, which is much faster than the average for all occupations. Besides, aren’t we the human service agencies that they are talking about? We are the ones that will need trained culturally competent workers?  I think I got it right?.  My target audience is not the dentists or computer engineers. My presentations are designed for the direct human service organizations or those pretending to be one.  We are the ones who will be creating the jobs, and who better to hire than the young adults we love and transform our educational and human service system?

Simple!

It is my opinion that more youth will find more successful, productive work in the human service system than in the green industry, which may lead to nothing more than moving shrubs and clearing bushes.  The report, 7 Myths about Green Jobs published by the University of Illinois and Case Western University challenges the efficacy of the Green Jobs Model. Programs already have a hard time getting youth off the streets and into the construction labor unions. What makes the Green Industry any different? I say let them work of us.

There’s one caveat. It is our responsibility to make these jobs permanent and incorporate them into the matrix of our human service system. For the past three years, YDRF has pushed Peer Support Workers (PSWs) as an entry level entrée to the workforce development system. Groups of trained and paid youth with intent focus on program and peer development activity should adorn every school, GED class and Job Training program.  The PSW will have a detailed career track to other positions in the organization and within the civil service system.

It should come to us as no surprise that if we keep using traditional measures to select teachers and youth workers, those who fall outside those traditional measures will be discounted and overlooked. Consequently the Ivy League student gets more opportunities to work in the hood than the committed, ex –offender who knows the error of his ways and is committed to making sure no one walks down that path.

If we continue to use these traditional measures for building the human service workforce, we will get the same substandard, lack-luster results we’ve always gotten, and we will deny the opportunity of a new breed of workers to carry the torch to take their peers into the 21^st Century, fight injustice, and advocate for those who are undervalued and overlooked.

The new Brown economy is an economy of service to our fellow humans, the ones who need it most. It is ready and waiting for us to put it in force.  Let’s put those who’ve been there, back there and watch what happens.

Edward DeJesus is a notable thinker in the field of workforce development and education. He is a national speaker, trainer and consultant. He can be reached at http://www.edwarddejesus.com. reprint permitted with full reference to author.

Don’t Let Change Stop On Nov. 4 – Create Jobs for Youth

 

America needs change. We’ve all known this for years, and we finally have a President Elect who shares the vision of a better America. The change campaign swept through this country, prompting millions of youth to take make their voices heard at the polling place, emphatically declaring that the time is now. However it’s one thing to talk about change, we must also be about it. Now that we have the power to effect change, what will we do with it? The time to roll up our sleeves is upon us and we all need to get busy. With an economy that is plunging daily, we must now examine the roots of this problem and devise a plan that effectively and inclusively involves all Americans in restoring our country and spreading the wealth equitably.

 

Presently, the employment rate is at rock bottom. Layoffs abound, and the unspoken last hired, first fired rule is in effect. At the same time, drop-outs rates are escalating, community college completion rates worsen and many youth workers who find themselves competing with college educated adults for a minimum wage job that will barely keep gas in their cars. Despite these facts, we’ve always known that large companies don’t hire those under age 25 for career level positions, not even at the entry level.

 

When the current outlook is so bleak, is it any wonder that youth are wondering why they should strive to enter the workforce or complete their education?

The recent election created a movement within the youth community that encouraged them to act, that convinced them that they matter, that change could occur. In fact, President Elect Obama got 23 million youth to the “polling place.” Now the question is: What will we do to get them to the “market place.” What do we need to do to ensure that the most disenfranchised of our youth get a chance at opportunity?

 

Change is coming, but where will it land? Will it hit the schools and youth programs? If we were tired of 8 years of backwards administration, we must be sick with 30 years of backwards youth policy. Although youth culture and the economy have dramatically changed in the past 30 years, many of our programs have not.  We have to many 8-track programs and policies in a MP 3 world. I am not talking about computers and Star Trek distance learning systems (they don’t work), I’m talking about the technology of youth engagement – a science that for many program programs means nothing more than letting youth rap at the local youth conference.

 

Our youth facilities are still trying to crank up the 8-track player and wondering why youth aren’t listening. Sadly, we think technology is the answer.  The youth who need our help want “High Touch and High Tech.” We are just getting the later. The cracks in misunderstanding between your average middle class teacher and hard to serve student have turned to craters.  It is a sad state of affairs when we have invested more research and time in making the things  of our world work better, but our interpersonal relationships remain stagnant. We are losing our youth, and unless we continue to promote change in every aspect of our lives, we will only be talking about it, and as we all know, talk is cheap.  

 

 

If President Elect Obama got youth’s attention through bottom up, grassroots efforts and organizing; then we need a bottom-up grassroots approach to youth education and workforce development.

 

At no time in history has the challenge to the future economic opportunity of out nations’ youth been most at-risk.  The rising cost of college, and the lack of any tangible success for the sacrifice perpetuates the cloud of despair that is the reality that many youth face. Has it ever been more apparent that we need change? There is a glaring neon sign that says now is the time, but where do we start?

 

Here are some suggestions:

 

-Encourage active participation of youth, obtaining their input in redesigning current programs and policies.

-Create a service corps of well trained and properly supported youth in the community promoting life, freedom and FEO (credentials, skills, degrewes, networks and work experience).

-Invest in research to determine why our youth and workforce system has been unable to engage the youth they are intended to reach.

-Incorporate workers’ rights training and education in all curriculum and job training programs

-Ensure that youth culturally competent mental health and substance abuse counseling is made readily available.

-Guarantee transitional jobs for all program graduates.

-Promote the use of the youth cultural competence approach to change program climates and community direction.

 

Engaging and supporting disconnected youth comes with many challenges. Yet the results of our success will impact all facets of society and rebuild stronger communities. Let us listen to their voices as they share their ideas for eradicating the perpetual cycle of poverty and inequality that they are caught within. Let their voices guide us to learn new ways to replace this despair with hope, healing and confidence in a newer, brighter tomorrow.

 

Reach all Youth

 

Edward DeJesus

 

 

What the Election Means to this Youth Worker

A major reason for my denial was the conditions I experienced during my travels from state to state. Not much consideration is given to those who are left behind, the discarded inhabitants of this country, the poor, undereducated, in short, the primarily black and Latino communities. 

 

If you asked me yesterday, no mater what the polls said, I would have declared that there is no way a Black Man will become President in America, at least in my lifetime.

 

 “If you can’t see it, how can you fix it?” I often inquire during my numerous keynote speeches. The conclusion I came to, was that America was not interested in fixing what is broken, but rather that it was content to allow the status quo to remain. After all, America’s constant disregard for those matters of importance to me were smacking me right in the face on a daily basis. If I can see it, then so too can America, and yet they chose not to act. What more proof was needed?

 Education is grossly underfunded, and the best practices and ideas often never make it to see the light of day. Funding of other programs that make no real impact seem to garner more attention and action. Income distribution was important as long as it was going in a direction opposite those communities that needed the most help. As far as I was concerned America not only didn’t get it, they probably never would. 

 

 But last night, America set me straight. Now don’t get me wrong I am not a sophomore when it comes to interpretation of polling results. There is still a gap in those who chose change and those who did not. I am not naive enough to believe that those of the old guard will now open the floodgates of opportunity to those communities who have been calling on it’s country to show them support, however I think we are embarking on an incredible journey. No matter how I (or the Pundits)  slice it, this election  has renewed my faith it America’s willingness to make things right and the possibility of a community organizer’s struggle.

 

Reach all Youth,

 Edward DeJesus

Youth Job Development Programs Miss the Mark

One misconception that many adults buy into concerning youth is the myth that they don’t care about their future or much of anything else for that matter. To the contrary, teens have a great deal of concern about where they stand in life and what opportunities are available to them. In many cases however, they find that the choices available and the methods used by services and organizations that are supposed to serve them fail to address the real issues that limit their life, freedom and future economic opportunity. This failure results in youth who resort to their own methods in order to fill the gap.

This perception of failure held by youth translates into fewer numbers returning to take advantage of the program services designed to offer education and jobs. Frustrated staff members, who diligently attempt to persuade teens to complete the process that will assist in job placement indicate, “They just don’t want to come back. They get the attitude of ‘what did the program really do for me?’”While youth believe their resistance in participating in these programs is justified, the adult society perceives this as a lack of appreciation that is rooted firmly in bad manners and a “what’s in it for me” mentality. However, according to youth focus group members, participation in the traditional educational system perpetuates a mentality of poverty. Their assessment of educational and workforce programs offered and funded by state and other governmental agencies, is that they promote mediocrity, minimally developing skills so that future underemployment is more likely to be within their scope than long term economic self-sufficiency. In other words, these methods just keep young people’s boats from sinking, they do little to get them to shore.

At a recent presentation to the Southern Nevada Workforce Investment Board, I challenged the group to think about the investment individuals make in preparing “privileged” youth for future success and fulfillment. The resulting laundry list looked nothing like what we currently offer in traditional workforce and youth development programs. For one thing, the outlook of those investing individuals is significantly different from that projected by workforce programs. The term investment alone implicates an expected favorable return, whereas the term workforce brings to mind a mundane existence. Notice how two totally different words have the ability to project two completely different outlooks on life.

As practitioners, we have to focus on projecting a path that is clearer, brighter, and lasting. We can start by changing our name and the perception attached to it. Our program focus must paint a picture of optimism and future prosperity for our youth. When selecting a program name, we must ask the following questions: Do young people want to be members of the workforce, or do they want economic self-sufficiency? Do they want to be exploited labor, or do they want economic justice and fair play? Do they want youth development services, or do they want those services to remove the economic and social inequities that determine who gets the best school and who doesn’t? Who is in jail and who isn’t? Who runs the company and who works for them? We need a name that redirects our attention as well as our focus.

Repeatedly I declare that we don’t need an employer demand driven workforce system. We need an opportunity system powered by the demands of youth. What is it that interests them? What will benefit them more so that their future economic success is enhanced? Continuing to focus on developing an employer demand driven workforce system is undermining our ability to engage the youth we are entrusted to serve. The problem with the principles of youth development, however, is that it does not allow you to ask the question, “Why do we need these principles in the first place?”

As a youth worker with several years of experience, I have urged programs to stop candy-coating the issues and speak openly and plainly about the problems within the system. In the minds of youth, the terms “workforce and youth development” reduce our youth’s capital to something that we are crafting for another demographic -a demographic that is going nowhere.

Unfortunately as policymakers and practitioners, we seldom take a deeper look, mainly because we are unaware of our youths’ genuine concern about the state of their lives and where they are headed. The reality is that they are not as indifferent as we believe them to be. When prompted, youth participating in focus groups outlined what they believed to be the keys to a more successful and positive outcome. Surprisingly, these points mirror what we as parents want our youth to strive towards. Some of these points include:

• Credentialing
• Obtaining educational degrees
• Building of work experience
• Developing new skills
• Increasing social networks

With this information as ammunition, workforce development practitioners must change their name. We should no longer use the term workforce or labor anywhere in our vocabulary. The U.S Department of Labor must become the U.S. Department of Future Economic Opportunity, the State of Nevada’s Workforce Investment Board must become the State of Nevada’s Future Economic Opportunity Board, and U.S. Job Corps must become the U.S. Future Economic Opportunity Corps.

Policymakers and practitioners must recognize that any effort to do to others without addressing the underlying issues will be suspect and consistently rejected, and should therefore be scrapped. We can start off by sending a new message.

In my speeches I often state that we live in a world of reality TV. We give props over how radical people are willing to become for a date, a million dollars, or 50 pounds of weight loss, none of which are accomplishments that have any relevant meaning to our youth. I charge that we must concentrate on the relevant and become passionate about the things that are important to our youth. What do you think your young people will think when you get radical for them?

For programs interested in adopting the YDRF youth engagement system, contact us at 301-216-2566

America has a Youth Engagement Dilemma

 

The cry for more youth program opportunities can be heard clear across America. Each year, advocates point out the growing needs of youth and young adults and the lack of programs and services to meet those needs. I, too, am guilty. My call of foul at the 250,000 federally funded program slots for the 5.4 million out-of-school youth is a staple of my presentations to policymakers across the U.S.

“How can we expect any progress in reducing gang violence and youth unemployment, or expect to quell the dropout rate if we only have enough program slots to serve 3% of the 14-21 year old eligible population!” Many echo my outcry, and I usually continue by addressing the real crux of the problem. “We don’t have a gang problem in the United States; we have a youth opportunity problem!” I have touted this cry from boardrooms in Seattle to the hoods in South Florida, always receiving a response of thunderous applause.

Despite the strong audience affirmation, I still find myself walking away and feeling as though something is missing. Why? Many of us were part of the movement to bring positive youth development to youth workforce programs across the U.S., making sure we serve youth differently than adults, and taking into account their developmental needs, assets, and the different stages of their development. Surely there is no disputing the fact that there is a need for more programs and opportunities for young people to grow into healthy, positive adults. So, what is lacking? Where is the breakdown?

Despite our best efforts at incorporating positive youth development we forgot one thing: incorporating youth. The sad reality is that many of our youth development and youth workforce programs struggle to get youth in the doors. Yes, I know this is a subject that we do not like to discuss. However, it is a subject that must be raised in the research and policy agenda in order to reach a viable solution. Of the millions of youth who desperately need education and workforce development in their lives, few are turning to the programs and services that can lead to better lives and opportunities. Those that do come often don’t stay. In this fact lies our advocacy paradox. How can we ask for more money when we can’t reach the kids with the money we have? The “ask” is not to serve more kids but to invest in strategies to reach the kids we have. Advocating for more resources in a system that cannot engage the youth it is intended to serve will eventually blow up in our face.

Now I know a few of you are crying foul. However, it is my experience that a few of you who cry foul are able to offer youth $300 or more every two weeks for attending. In fact, engagement has translated to money, at least for some. For others, it is obtained through sophisticated creaming strategies that, for the most part, has programs turning away from the youth who need the services most.

School Accountability: What about us?

If the educational system is forced to be more accountable, so should youth development and workforce programs. Let me break it down like a fraction – No Child Left Behind is exposing the incredible achievement gap that currently exists within the United States. The National Governors Association recommendation for states to recalculate dropout rates has exposed a national travesty: 50% of African-American and Latino youth drop out of high school.

The exposure doesn’t stop there however. The Beginning Post-secondary Students Longitudinal Study reported that only 31% of students who entered community college in 1995-1996 with the intention of earning a degree or certificate had met their goal six years later. For African-American and Latino students the rate is much lower.

As if that weren’t enough of a factor, Congress is trying to rescind 65 million of WIA funds partly because of unspent funds. While there are many excuses for why funds are unspent, the reality is that many programs have no youth to spend them on. It seems that despite the weeding out of those who are not serious, along with those who constantly whine or refuse to work with adjudicated youth, or youth in the foster care system, programs still can’t get it right. Once again, the question hangs out there—why?

Why?

Perhaps the most important program element is engagement. At YDRF, we believe in the Performance Formula: Performance is the function of Recruitment x Engagement (Pfx Rec x Eng). Without effective and consistent engagement efforts, programs can never meet expected outcomes. The primary challenge youth service providers face in implementing effective engagement strategies is to stop blaming engagement difficulties on young people’s deficiencies, but instead recognize that it is the deficiencies of the programs themselves. Building a youth engagement system in much different from incorporating positive youth development principles into program design.

A youth engagement system is a commitment to a set of principles and practices sustained by policy and sufficient resources, dedicated to creating an authentic and culturally competent service delivery system where young people feel valued as stakeholders and are compelled to invest in active and meaningful participation towards mutual goals. In short, we need a youth driven workforce preparation system, not an employer driven one– time and statistics have proven that’s not working!

In order to do this, organizations need to build and strengthen the routes (and in some cases open them) for young people to be fully engaged in the decisions, opportunities and challenges affecting their communities. One of the largest miscalculations that youth employment programs make is to attempt to provide services to the at-risk populations without first developing an intimate understanding of what truly motivates and interests this special group.

In The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives on High School Dropouts, Bill Gates tells us the most reported reason why youth are dropping out of school. They are bored with education! Sounds like something we could have figured out on our own, right? Probably, however that is only part of the story. What Mr. Microsoft failed to tell us is that they are not bored with education; they are just bored with the education and job training we subject them to. Youth are literally handing us the manual to how to help them become successful, but is anyone reading the pages? Not only is it time to realize that up until this point, the method used to increase youth engagement is not just flawed, it’s broken. If we want to make a change, it is we that must make changes, using their lead as a path to getting it right.

For programs interested in adopting the YDRF youth engagement system, contact us at 301-216-2566

 

The Alarming Drop-Out Rate – this time it is community college

With all the fanfare around the high school dropout crisis, it is easy to overlook the other failing efforts of another institution where American students are not faring all too well – community colleges.

According to the Beginning Post-secondary Students Longitudinal Study, only 31 percent of students who entered community college in 1995-1996 with the intention of earning a degree or certificate had met their goal six years later. The situation is worse for students with non-traditional high school diplomas. In fact, unreleased research states that approximately less than 10% of African American males with a GED who enter community college complete their course of study within six years.

Often deemed the pathway to economic opportunity for vulnerable youth, community colleges are touted as the “golden ticket” to high growth/high paying jobs for millions of economically and academically disadvantaged young adults. However, evidence of success is lacking, and millions of youth now refer to this so-called golden opportunity as the “high school” after high school, a tag that speaks volumes about the system’s inability to keep youth engaged. Characterized by large class sizes, distance learning systems, and computerized educational networks, most community colleges lack the basic elements of youth development that produce gains for vulnerable young adults—access to positive, caring adults, small learning communities, culturally competent instruction, and intensive services and supports.

With such a low completion rate, a rate well below that for even the worse high school, is this option really a boondoggle for America’s vulnerable young person, especially those of low income? After all, a large part of the demographics of those attending community college tends to be those students who do not have the monetary resources to attend large universities, or the luxury of a lifestyle that allows for long and involved courses of study. Therefore the ramifications of participating in the programs offered by community colleges is often that students tend to utilize a large portion of the grants, student loans, and other government funds that are available to them with very little educational return. They receive training that they are almost guaranteed not to complete, and that fails to secure employment that yields income sufficient enough to support a lifestyle beyond repaying their education debts. Given this fact, is the touting of these post-secondary educational opportunities as a viable means of economic stability really a promotion of the economic inequality that we were trying to address in the first place.

In accessing the failures of these programs, it is also critical to pull out the variables within the small ratio of success, in order to determine where the post-secondary programs are actually missing the mark. A method of comparison and contrast will likely uncover painful truths, but will serve greatly in uncovering a remedy that will better serve the disconnected young adult population. For example, what is the completion rate of out-of-school youth from WIA funded programs compared to those who did not receive any services at all? What are the characteristics of the successful 31% who completed their course of studies? How can these characteristics be replicated in order to increase overall positive outcomes? These are the questions that must be asked and answered if we are to move progressively toward effective solutions that will encompass not only a select group of students, but rather the student population as a whole. We must face the negatives with an aggressive approach, determining if and where more assistance is needed within the education system itself, and what that assistance should involve. We must also ensure that in our efforts to improve the numbers, we are not substituting quality for quantity. The results that determine effective change must be measured in terms of successful long-term outcomes versus high completion rates that yield temporary monetary gains.

Programs such as The Guardian Scholars Program in Orange County California holds much promise and should be closely studied. The Guardian Scholars Program is a comprehensive program of financial aid, life coaching, mentoring, housing and personalized attention for youth in foster care. It enables emancipated foster youth to successfully engage in attending a college, university or vocational school. Self-reported data boast a 70% retention rate for students enrolled in the program.

In a society highly concentrated on making sure no child is left behind, it is extremely important to point vulnerable youth down the path that is going to provide these lasting success options. Part of the task in effectively accomplishing this is to change the mindset of these youth, and restore their faith in the system of education. As it stands right now, we cannot ask them to have this faith when they see the failure rates of their peers within the post-secondary structure reach proportions of 70 – 90%. The reasons behind such poor completion vary tremendously. Some students are grossly unprepared, while others are there for the social aspects of meeting members of the opposite sex. However, the majority are plagued with the incidental crisis of financial hardships and family responsibility. Regardless of the category, the end result remains that today’s education turnout continues to drop considerably, creating a dismal outlook for those students who would otherwise take the plunge of furthering their education in hopes of a successful end result. If this negative imagery is not combated and ultimately reversed, the percentages of failure will continue to grow, making laughable the notion of “no child left behind.” Since the failure of the education system is no laughing matter, it is imperative that we develop concrete solutions to reduce the number of students who slip through the cracks. Oops, I mean craters.

Back to School

It’s a phrase you’ve heard before, parents, educators, and politicians, and other adults tout it, with the intent of emphasizing continued education in order to get somewhere in life. They may mean well, but the reality is that millions of youth are not returning to school.

Where are all these kids? It’s a question that every adult in every community should be asking, yet less than a quarter of the general voting population even recognizes that the dropout rate is a major concern for today’s youth. Arguably the largest problem facing education today, but decidedly the most overlooked problem within the education system, the dropout rate isn’t remotely receiving the amount of attention it warrants. While lack of funding and parental involvement, along with a severe shortage of quality teachers are issues that need to be addressed, children actually have to be in school for those problems to be a factor. Concerns regarding the education system should be all encompassing and that is currently not the case. How can it be when over 80% of voters feel it’s not their problem?

The public decision makers have completely disassociated themselves from the problem of school dropouts because they feel it does not directly affect them—a cold and callus stance to take, not to mention an extremely inaccurate one. The epidemic of out of school youth reaches deep into the heart of every community in America, however those with blinders on prefer to compartmentalize the problem, assessing it to those youth afflicted by living in inner cities, subjected to bad parenting, or the overwhelming influence of hip-hop. Admittedly, there are a portion of youth whose situations may fit these categories and they suffer as a result of them, however every child does not fit the ready made blame molds that society would like to store them in so that they can ease their collective conscious.

It is estimated that 50% of African-American and Latino youth do not complete the twelfth grade, a percentage that is extremely staggering, and one that very few people actually know or seem to care about. What is even more disturbing is that today’s youth are leaving schools at an earlier and earlier age. It is reported that nearly half of all dropouts leave school by the tenth grade, and a shocking 20% throw in the towel by the 8th grade.

Dropout reasons today vary, with the majority of youth citing the following as factors that prompt them to exit the halls of a learning institution:

1. They don’t like school – Trivial as it may sound, young adults need a motivation that outweighs the frustration that is often felt when school doesn’t make sense to them. If there isn’t some sort of connection, something that validates the necessity of attending school, many youth see it as a waste of time with no real benefit.
2. Inability to get along with teachers or other students – Social skills are extremely vital in ensuring success in school but not only for students, for teachers as well. Teachers who assume that students need to adopt the cultural and values of the school without paying attention to valuing the culture and values of the youth can expect only a small degree of success. In these environments, students who feel disrespected, dismissed and devalued often elect to remove themselves from the situation that they find uncomfortable—thus one cut class becomes three, which becomes a day, until eventually going to school is not an option.
3. Failing grades or inability to keep up with course work – Poor grades with little to no explanation as to where they are making their mistakes serves as a discouraging factor for many youth. Without constant encouragement and avenues for support they adopt the attitude that since they aren’t doing well anyway, they may as well not be there.
4. Feeling unsafe – With violence rates among youth climbing, several youth opt to not even show up to their classes as opposed to being engaged in a physical confrontation.
5. Support of family – A trend that was often a necessity in the 50’s and 60’s seems to have reappeared in the millennium. Students often feel the pressure of budgetary constraints within their families and feel compelled to leave school in order to contribute. Additionally teen pregnancies account for this dropout factor.

Instead of addressing the problems head on, the political community has optioned for an easy way out. Instead of eliminating the real weapon of mass destruction – the lack of quality education, they build missiles. Instead of addressing the real threat to national security – the lack of opportunity, they build prisons. It always seems apparent that when government does not know how to deal with a problem, they run from a problem. For military intelligence must tell them that the United States cannot police the world while their own backyard is burning. The real world of our youth usually exceeds the imagination of most mainstream decision makers. What most decision makers call ghettos; young adults call home.

With the apparent lack of opportunities to continue their education, the question then becomes, where do they go? While only a few youth are at some point encouraged to return to the school system, millions more wind up pounding the pavement in either a job search or idle activity. Considering the immense difficulty in securing employment that exists for Americans with college degrees, suffice to say that youth who have less than a tenth grade education require some sort of assisted training program in order to survive. The existence of such programs however does not come close to supporting the demand for job training. With only 250,000 federally funded job training slots and even fewer state and privately funded programs, more youth are slipping through the proverbial cracks than any citizen should be comfortable with accepting. Still acceptance is exactly what occurs when actions to initiate and support programs that train dropouts do not take place. Ignorance is not bliss, and that statement applies to youth who have exited the school system as well as the adult citizens who do not take the time to become informed of the severity of this epidemic. Every non-high school graduate affects the conditions of every community in America—an attitude that must be adopted, spread, and acted upon. Businesses suffer because there are no qualified successors to make critical decisions. When businesses suffer, the economy suffers, because each folded business takes with it the opportunity for more jobs and revenue—and so the cycle continues. That being said, it is completely ludicrous to conclude that this problem falls solely and squarely on the shoulders of those who have children and those who are responsible for educating them. To the contrary, the concern belongs to every individual in every city. Ensuring the proper education and productivity of our youth ensures that our entire economic structure and way of life continues to evolve and grow in a manner that supports us all.

Though every effort must be made to encourage youth to remain in or return to school, the reality is that there will be millions who do not exercise either option. These individuals must not be overlooked or condemned to a life on the streets, which is the inevitable destination if citizens do not become informed or get involved. Involvement takes on many facets and can include some of the following methods:

• Become vocal in your community – Organize members of your community. Recognize the issue and consider ideas to provide training to youth, possibly mentoring or other programs which will teach valuable job skills.
• Use politics to challenge leadership – Voices with volume are seldom ignored. Create a forum that allows concerned citizens to address local community leaders. Present the problem and possible solutions, and then press for answers and results. Be persistent, change is not overnight and local government will often try to “wait out” the problem, hoping interest will diminish. Keeping the issues at the forefront forces action or embarrassment, and since no politician wants to be embarrassed, action is the only other recourse.
• Enlist the help of local businesses – Talk to local business owners about the possibility of on the job training for youth, or ask them to support the efforts of a program that will provide training.
• Become a mentor – Sharing your life experiences and the importance of education in all aspects of life can be the difference in whether a youth returns to school, or at least opts to strive for enhanced learning.

Ultimately, the future of our society lies in the success of our youth. By keeping this in mind, there is no possible way to sit idly and watch them deteriorate. Get involved and stay involved. If a mind truly is a terrible thing to waste, what are you waiting for?

The Real Reason for the Drop-Out Crisis – Part 1

How many times have you witnessed a young person throw away their life or freedom over the concept of disrespect? Once, twice, too many times to feel comfortable reading this article? So what do you think young people will do to their educational opportunities when they are so called “disrespected” in the classroom? Drop-out!

Like other youth service workers, I have witnessed many young adults throw away educational opportunities because, in their reality, the institutions that were entrusted to help them build self-esteem, actually tore it apart.

Despite the fanfare around the drop-out crisis, I am sure no one will want to talk about this issue – how our educational and workforce systems disrespects the cultural capital of young adults. In fact, in some schools, a young person’s cultural capital is visibly attacked: Hats are burned, shirts are banned, and music, well, that’s another story.

Former Harvard Professor Pedro Noguera explains the dilemma this way:”It is imperative that efforts to help black youth be guided by ongoing attempts at understanding the cultural forms they produce, and the ways in which they respond and adapt to their social and cultural environment. Without such an understanding, efforts to influence the attitude and behaviors of African-American males will most likely fail to capture their imagination and be ignored.”

And being ignored they are. A recent report by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation reported that the national drop-out rate stands at around 33%. For inner city, poor black and Latino youth, it stands at around 50%. With 50% of urban youth failing to graduate from high school, we need to look past hip- hop and parents as the culprits. It is important to understand that being youth culturally competent isn’t the same as being “multi-cultural.” Youth cultural competence is about consciously and strategically using positive peer pressure, youth involvement and youth popular culture to produce positive outcomes for youth. While many schools are willing to focus on the fact that smaller schools, better paid teachers and smaller class sizes will help improve student achievement, very few acknowledge the role that YCC can play in increasing student engagement, and consequently, the standards that schools are so blindingly pursuing.

Youth Cultural Competence (YCC) is not a one-day workshop,; rather YCC is a strategic and measurable effort to increase a schools ability to relate to youth through two of its greatest resources: youth involvement and positive peer influence. Youth Cultural Competence is a revolution in empowering youth programs because it organizes programs to look at their most valuable asset – youth. YCC is not a program; YCC is an entirely new method for connecting with youth, utilizing youth in the quest to produce educational gains for students and schools alike. In our work around the country, we are witness to a number of programs that want youth cultural competence without placing the true effort and resources behind making YCC possible.

Young adults connect to adults who respect their youth culture. Rhodes scholar Jay MacLeod suggests in his book, “Ain’t No Makin’ It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood,” that those who work with youth “need not have a black belt in karate, place a premium on machismo, swear in class, or have working-class roots like most students. However, they must be prepared to validate the identities that their students have taken on as part of growing up.”

How do schools validate the identities of youth with whom they work? The answer is “most don’t.” Young adults identify themselves as skaters, rappers, hustlers, and krumpers quicker than they claim allegiance to their Italian, African or Latino roots. Most youth can tell you more about Method Man than Marcus Garvey. Yet, schools still throw ethnic food nights and ignore the importance of events that celebrate the diversity of interests among the youth they serve.

Most civil rights groups would demand diversity training for a school system run by whites for African American students, especially if there was not one African American on faculty, not one thing about the African American experience in the curriculum, and not one African American hero and shero on the wall. Yet, everyday we visit schools where there is not one young person on staff; nothing about the “youth cultural” experience in the curriculum; and not one youth hero and shero on the wall. To some degree, can we say that schools need some diversity training?

In B.C. Howard’s book “In Learning to Persist, Persisting to Learn,” he writes, “Many black youth develop negative attitudes and behavior patterns regarding education when schools fail to affirm the values and norms of their culture. In fact, when black youth sense disapproval of their style of academic assertiveness, their energy might be channeled into aggressiveness against the academic environment.” And this form of academic assertiveness is very clearly displayed in their choice to “drop -out.”

A youth culturally competent education system is the answer. We must learn ways to validate the identities that students have taken on as part of growing up and use those identifies to promote the importance of education and work. We must look past the baggy pants and colored hair and connect with our children based on their interests, ideas, , aspirations and cultural capital. Educators who marginalize youth culture, confirm everything that youth culture rages against.

Part Two: Ten Ways Schools Disrespect Youth: Coming Next Issue

Is Hip-Hop Keeping It Real for Our Youth?

The Hip-Hop industry, and the music world, has fallen into the worst sales slump in at least a decade. Despite the “bling bling” on your television, The Recording Industry Association of America reports that the shipment of music products fell 10.3% in 2001, costing Hip-Hop record companies, producers, distributors, artists, fashion designers, and other Hip-Hop heads millions of dollars in lost earnings. The industry’s suffering is intense, but if you’ve got millions to lose, than you’ve got millions. The Disposable Heroes of Hip-Hop aren’t so lucky.

Who are They?

They are the 16-24 year old members of the Hip-Hop Nation who desperately need options beyond the streets. They are the subject of almost every Hip-Hop track from gangster rap to the party remix. They are the one’s who invented keeping it real, who live keeping it real on the streets of cities like the Bronx, South Central, Detroit, B-More, the District, and Miami. The Disposable Heroes of Hip-Hop love Hip-Hop not because Hip-Hop loves them, but because Hip-Hop is them- it is their struggle to survive in a world of violence, drugs, gangs, broken families, and poverty and still find a way to keep their head up. They are the young people who were not provided the support necessary to complete the twelfth grade or to engage the labor market. Currently, there are approximately 5.2 million Disposable Heroes of Hip-Hop who are out-of-school, unemployed, underemployed, and/or incarcerated. These young people’s sad stories have built a two billion dollar global, Hip-Hop culture; yet, each year, both society and the Hip-Hop industry lose a potential supply of revenue of over 88 billion dollars in the wages that these youth fail to earn. The sharp rise in youth unemployment, the persistent joblessness among young African American men, the broad impact of the current recession, and the overwhelming lack of youth programs and services have contributed to making both the challenges and the needs of the Disposable Heroes of Hip-Hop greater than ever before. Indeed:

Although more than 2083 youth ages 14-19 drop out of school each day, government training programs can serve less that 2% of this population (US Department of Labor, 2001).

Current government and private programs supporting this population are on the chopping block., The Youth Opportunity Program, which serves young people in the highest poverty areas in America, will receive an 80% reduction in funding, cutting services for approximately 24,000 youth.

Since the economy has turned sour, the unemployment rate for 14-21 year old youth of color has accounted for over 70% of the total job loss among all adults in the United States over the past twelve months (Northeastern University, 2002).

The number of youth of color in poverty is expected to grow by at least 30% in the next ten years (Johns Hopkins University, 1998).

While Napster, CD burners, and MP3 players have all been cited for the decline in record sales, it seems clear that the lack of opportunities for the Disposable Heroes of Hip-Hop also plays a role. Without the purchasing power of the Hip-Hop Generation, and perhaps more importantly, without the emotional support and energy of the streets, Hip-Hop may quickly become the fad everyone once thought it to be.

Recycling that Matters

Now, more than ever, it’s time for the Hip-Hop community to reclaim the Disposable Heroes of Hip-Hop and help them to transform themselves into the true players, dreamers, and lovers that they long to be. As Hip-Hop has long been the voice of the suffering of young people in the inner city, it must now rise to the challenge and make the case for government, community, and corporate investment in unemployed, undereducated and disconnected youth. The Youth Development and Research Fund presents the following three recommendations to the Hip-Hop Industry:

1. Support the “The Campaign for Youth” – a national group of youth advocates invested in improving options and the lives of the Disposable Heroes of Hip-Hop through:
   1. Media assistance. Lend of the services of your media relations firms to help us tell this story to the American public.
   2. Fundraising. The Campaign for Youth needs support. The Capmpaign needs 500,000 to cover costs associated with this advocacy effort and underwrite a national PR campaign. The Campaign’s goal is to secure 14 billion dollars in investments each year for this population equal to the cost of what it takes to operate one Aircraft carrier. The two non-profits leading the Campaign: YouthBuild, USA; and The National Youth Employment Coalition were listed as the Best Charities in the U.S. in 2002 by Worth magazine.
   3. Spokesperson. Assist the Campaign in identifying a National spokesperson for the campaign. This person should have credibility with a broad group of constituents.
   4. Be more active at reaching out to youth through personal appearances, positive lyrics, and PSAs that provide good information to young people about how to place themselves on a pathway to long-term success.
   5. Adopt a local programs, drop a few more positive hints, mentor a young person in need of a strong adult role model, help fund programs and services.
   6. Produce more uplifting and inspiring music with a message that will promote the life, freedom and future economic opportunity of youth; not the bad information that takes away from it.
   7. Call YDRF to find out about other ways to get involved.

While many in the hip-hop community do something for the community. We are not moved. It is far less than what their vast resources allow them to do. It is time for the hip-hop industry to move past vanity charity. If they truly want to claim the streets; it time they pay their dues to the streets. The Disposable Heroes of Hip-Hop are not disposable. For many of us, they are our past. For all of us, they are our future. It’s time for the Hip-Hop Nation to stand up in unity against disposing our Hip-Hop Heroes and take the necessary steps to ensure that these young people have options beyond the streets.