| West Contra Costa County Job Fair for Foster Youth Facing Emancipation Every year hundreds of children emancipate from the system with the expectation that they will have the skills and abilities that they need to live healthy, productive, and independent lives. Unfortunately, many leave care without jobs or a high school education. These youth are at high risk of becoming homeless or involved with the criminal justice system. One of the goal of our program is to break the well-documented cycle of abused youth that fail in school, become delinquent juveniles, become homeless, or the next generation of incarcerated adults. The goal is to challenge, nurture, support, inspire, and develop youth into becoming self-confident, self-directed, and independent young men and women. The essence of what our efforts and programs bring to the community is a channeling of community resources directly to these at-risk youth. We facilitate collaborative partnerships with agencies. Juvenile justice professionals, educators, community leaders, and youth providing life skills development services to ensure career advancement, wage progression, job retention and movement towards self-sufficiency. Our motto at Mentoring Life Skills Mission is simply, "Each one, Teach one." Our efforts are supported by local community partners, including our existing relationship with East Bay Works, who enhances our organizational capability and provide advice and feedback. With your assistance we can continue cultivating a collaboration of the committed to marshal resources and action in support of these disadvantaged youth in critical need of assistance and opportunity. Through youth job development and training programs in the Area we will provide job training support and resources to increase participation of our youth. This is key to providing services directly into the neighborhoods, and directly to youth ready and serious about improving their life situation. Local building trade unions such as the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, the Building and Construction Trades Council, the Private Industry Council, Sheet Metals Workers Union Local 104, IBEW Local 551, and the IUPAT District Council 16 can play an essential role in the training process. This is by providing resources, opportunities, and support including apprenticeship and certification for participants of the program. Union partners would also offer presentations at job fairs and classes, review resumes, placement assistance, conduct mock interviews, provide internships, mentoring opportunities, and directly train and hire program participants. To cultivate representation from all ethnic groups, we are actively recruiting members from a variety of minority and community organizations and groups. Organizations like these form the basis of our new Community Advisory Council (CAC), which we hope you will become an active part of. As Executive Director of Mentoring Life Skills Mission, I am well known as a Human Rights Activist and Advocate throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. I have worked to reform foster care; group homes for youth; domestic violence against women, children and teens; sexual assault against women; and many other issues that mainstream society would prefer to sweep under the rug and hope for all of us to forget about. We respectfully ask for your assistance in making our efforts a reality, and a substantial resource for those in need. I am very interest in discussing with you how to best gain the support of the East Bay Economic Development Alliance, and any other entities that share our objectives. I will contact your staff soon to make a appointment with you to get your input on how we can best support our local West County foster care youth. We believe that we, as a community, must work to provide viable options and opportunities for these young adults who are facing emancipation in the year 2009 and beyond. |
Job Fair
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