Youth Feedback from 2011 Career and Entrepreneurship Event for Foster Care Youth and Alumni

My entire fall has been consumed by preparations for the 2011 Career and Entrepreneurship Conference - because today's foster care youth and alumni are WORTH it.

• Worth preparing for their future career.
• Worth providing insider tips on how to successfully connect with the workforce.
• Worth waking up at 3 am or 4 am in the morning and obsessing over details for...

I have a day job (as a Children's Librarian). I have daytime-responsibilities. For every day I take off for foster-care-related stuff, I work an an extra day over the weekend to compensate my paying employer. But every 15-minute break, every lunch break, evenings and weekends, my heart and mind naturally drift towards my younger brothers and sisters in and from foster care.

Rhonda Sciortino's Keynote ~ Quotes from Youth Evaluations:

• “It was wonderful. I am SO glad she was able to come. It gave me a lot of insight, not only into my situation, but how to live my life.”

• “I liked that Rhonda encouraged us – we need more of that”

• “It was nice to be able to meet someone that was a foster child in the past, and that has a wonderful life.”

• “This session was really helpful and inspirational to me cause it gave a lot more hope for my future and it showed me that you can do whatever you want, if you have the passion for it and put your mind into it.”

• “Mrs. Sciortino taught me that no matter what anyone says to try and put me down and say that I can’t do it, that I’m the ONLY ONE who can change my life and succeed in my life.”

• "Was really interested in what Rhonda was saying – it gave me hope that I could become something in life. LOVED IT”

One young person just wrote, on the evaluation form regarding Rhonda's presentation: "Thank you."

Overall Event ~ Quotes from Youth Evaluations:

• “Worth the trip, thoroughly enjoyed it”

• “It was wonderful. I really enjoyed it. I hope we can do it again, soon.”

• “I loved it. This conference ROCKS! I hope we have another”

• “I thought that it was all very helpful! And I think that all the information I got today will help me down the line.”

• “Anything they said was helpful, if you just apply it to your life. A quote that always went through my head: ‘How to you live when you’re ruled by your past? But how do you forget a past that made you?”

• “I enjoyed it, and it will help me in the future.”

• “The event was a success in terms of the people I connected with.”

• “The whole event was very professional, and organized by the way that everything was set up and put together, and I believe everyone who decided to have this event for us are really caring people who really cares about the youth and where they end up, and who they become. Thank you very much for inviting me.”

• “I have really enjoyed the whole entire time I’ve been here. I appreciate every single person who taught me things that I didn’t know were possible”

• “I’m glad I came today, because I learned a lot of stuff that will help me with a successful future.”

• “I am really glad that I got to come up to Columbus; I am leaving with lots of new facts than when I came. I really think that all students need to do what I did today.”

• “I really enjoyed it, even though I had to get up really early. I liked it.”

• “I really enjoyed myself and really changed my perspective on jobs, life and success. Loved it!!!”

Watching the Teen Job Market Disappear

Trends in the Summer Employment / Population Ratios of the Nation’s Teens 1989 – 2010

According to the Center for Labor Market Studies:

• Teens are at a unique disadvantage: No other age group of American working-age adults has been beset by such a dramatic decline in their overall employment rates over the past four years, or over the last decade as a whole.

• "During the summer of 2000, near the height of the early 1990s-2000 national economic boom, nearly 52 percent of the nation’s teens held some type of job."

•  "As a result of the national economic recession of 2001 and the largely jobless recovery of 2002-2003, the teen summer employment rate dropped considerably, falling to 41 percent by 2004."

• "The next four summers, from 2007-2010, saw the teen employment rate fall steadily and sharply from 42.6 percent in 2006 to 29.6 percent in 2010. Over that span, the summers of 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 each set post-WWII summer lows for teens."

• "There are no signs that teen employment rates will improve this summer."

Employment Rates of Teens (16-19) in

Selected Household Income/Race-Ethnic Groups in

the U.S. during the Summer of 2010

Additional observations from the Center for Labor Market Studies:

• "Accounting for race shows even greater disparities in summer teen employment rates. The breakdown by race and ethnicity of teens at work in the summer of 2010 shows about one in ten low-income, black youth and between one in seven and one in five black and Hispanic teens from low- and middle-income families."

• "Yet employment rates over the same span were 40 to 41 percent for white youth in families with incomes in the middle and upper middle income range. This means more affluent white youth were four times as likely to be employed as low-income black youth."

2025 Vision for African American Males

The 2025 Campaign for Black Men and Boys today has released a new report, We Dream A World: The 2025 Vision for Black Men and Boys with recommendations aimed at drastically altering life outcomes for black men and boys.

Among this report's fundings...

• African  American men are less likely to be working than any other demographic in the United States
• African American men between ages 16-24 fare the worst
• The time between ages 16-24 often established a person's earning trajectory for a lifetime.

 Barriers to Attaining Employment:

• At every educational level, African American males are less likely to be employed and earn less than their Caucasian peers.
• Caucasians with comparable  credentials were 50% more likely to receive calls from prospective employers.
• Research by the University of Chicago indicates that having an ethnic-sounding name is a job interview deterrent.

Ohio Workforce Coalition's 2010-2012 Public Policy Platform

The Ohio Workforce Coalition has been working over the past year on a public policy platform, with the goal of:

• Reducing barriers for adults pursuing education and training.
• Meeting the workforce needs of Ohio employers.
• Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the state workforce development system.

The Ohio Workforce Coalition's 2010-2012 Public Policy Platform includes the goal of 'Improving the efficiency  and effectiveness of  the state workforce development system' by making these three recommendations:

A. Leadership. Appoint a cabinet-level workforce official to lead Ohio’s workforce development activities across all state agencies, and establish workforce committees in the Ohio legislature.

B. Coordination. Adopt a policy to assure that all available federal workforce education and training funds are fully used, and work with local agencies to establish a baseline level of consistent Workforce Investment Act (WIA) services that will be provided throughout the state.

C. Data. Establish cross-agency performance measures and issue an annual workforce education and training report card with county-level data.

Their 2010-2012 Public Policy Platform makes recommendations regarding coordination of funding streams and calculation financial aid as well...

Regarding funding, they are concerned that, "There are multiple federal funding streams that can be used for workforce training and supportive services for people in training, but Ohio does not have policies in place to assure that these resources are fully accessed and effectively used statewide."

 Therefore, their recommendation is:

1. The Governor’s office should issue state policy to assure that all state agencies, counties, regions, or districts are using available federal workforce education and training funds. Funding streams include Federal Transportation Funds, the SNAP10 Employment and Training Program, and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.

2. The Governor’s Workforce Policy Board, in collaboration with local WIB directors and the Department of Job and Family Services, should develop a set of key statewide WIA policies. These policies should assure that workers, job-seekers, and employers have access to a baseline level of consistent WIA services everywhere in the state and that WIA implementation is not subject to more restrictive local policies and practices.

Regarding financial aid, they write that, "Because Ohio’s FY 2010-2011 budget cut the Ohio College Opportunity Grant (OCOG) by over 57%, the Ohio Board of Regents implemented a policy that eliminated access to OCOG for students at community colleges and regional branch campuses—many of whom used this need-based financial aid to cover living expenses while they were in school."

Therefore, the Ohio Workforce Coalition recommends that:

1. The Ohio Board of Regents’ calculation of the cost of attendance at public two-year colleges, which is used to determine OCOG availability, should be modified to include living expenses for the most disadvantaged students.

2. The Ohio Board of Regents should permit OCOG funds to be used at all USO institutions for non-credit and occupational certificate programs that prepare students for strategically targeted, in-demand occupations.

• Adjusting the Ohio College Opportunity Grant formula to include living expenses for students at two-year colleges.
• Improving awareness of and access to programs and resources that can help adult students succeed in postsecondary education and training.

Challenges Facing Transitional Youth - Especially African American Young Men

Hearing this radio interview on NPR, and reading the research below concerns me - especially because of African Americans overrepresentation in foster care.

This is one of many reasons why the Ohio chapter of Foster Care Alumni of America is involved in dismantling the Cradle to Prison Pipeline in our state.

Our young people need better preparation and a network of support.



The Educational Crisis Facing Young Men of Color

• Young men are not persisting in school or achieving at the same academic levels as young women.

• This challenge is most acute for the most disadvantaged men of color. At just about every stage of the educational pipeline, they lag behind minority women in terms of achievement, persistence, and school and college completion.

High Unemployment Rate for African American Youth
• The current unemployment rate for black male youth, ages 16 to 19, is 52%

• Corporate Voices and the Ready by 21 Partnership are working to engage business leaders to create local partnerships within their communities.