EVERETT — How can we make it easier for young people in need to find work?
That’s what a group of nearly 20 community groups, including nonprofits, local school districts and the city of Everett, are planning to study over the coming months. It’s through a process known as the National Youth Champion Communities Mayors Challenge, created by the National Youth Employment Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit. Everett is one of seven cities nationwide taking part.
What the organizations hope to eventually produce is vague, as the process is still in an early planning stage. But over the next few months, the group hopes to build a strategic plan to help local youth in need of employment opportunities connect with resources in their community.
“There is an understanding of where the weaknesses are in the community and where the strengths are,” said the executive director of the National Youth Employment Coalition, Mary Ann Haley. “What we’re hoping to facilitate is being able to identify those gaps, then work collectively to fill them.”
SnoCo Connect, a local youth program funded by the Department of Labor, applied to include Everett as one of the cities involved in the study. It is leading the process to create a strategic plan it hopes local organizations can implement to help young people ages 14 to 24 find work.
“Everett is a really strong cross-sector hub within Snohomish County and the folks that we serve,” said Kendra Reiser, who works with SnoCo Connect. “We knew that we would be able to get industry, education or transportation partners and community-based organizations that we work with to be a part of this. This could kind of be a good starting point for removing barriers to youth employment in this area.”
By March, SnoCo Connect hopes to create an “asset map” for youth in need, which could point them in the direction of housing assistance, career support and other programs in the area. The group will also meet with local organizations monthly to determine the best steps forward for a strategic plan.
It will be up to individual organizations if they decide to implement the plan, said Becca LaNasa, the director of programs at the Seattle Jobs Initiative, which works with SnoCo Connect.
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
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