Transitional Age Youth (TAYSF)

Straight Forward Club (SFC) boxing program now recruiting youth and young adults for summer program

Justin Slaughter — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:59:49 +0000

Straight Forward Club (SFC) is currently recruiting children, youth and young adults for its Summer Boxing and Leadership Program! Participants should be between the ages of 8-25 years old.

If you are interested, or know someone that might be, below are the necessary documents:

·         SFC Summer Session Flyer- This flyer contains the information that you will need, including a summer schedule.
·         Registration Form- Participants must fill out both pages completely. If you are under 18 a parent or guardian needs to sign this form. (incomplete registration forms will not be accepted)
·         Health Assessment- This form lets helps us understand where you stand with your physical health.
·         Survival Aptitude Intake Survey – This form helps us understand where you stand with you behavioral health. (only applies to participants 13-25 years old)

Please fill out all the forms and return them to the SFC Gym at 30 7^th Street, SF CA 94103 Monday – Friday between 2-7pm.

For more information, email Coach Ben Bautista at bbautista@straightforwardclub.org or SFC Gym Coordinator Denis Madriz at dmadriz@straightforwardclub.org.

Source: Straight Forward Club, May 11, 2012

Interview w/ Arlene Hylton, Program Director, San Francisco Independent Living Skills Program

Justin Slaughter — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:26:39 +0000

Interview w/ Arlene Hylton, Program Director at San Francisco Independent Living Skills Program
by Justin Slaughter, TAYSF Communications Coordinator

What programs and/or services do you offer? For what age/population?
At ILSP we serve just youth who are in, or have been in, “out-of-home” social services placement, which means foster and juvenile justice youth. We work with youth 14 – 21 year-olds for our day-to-day programs that we offer here at our Valencia office, but also ILSP serves youth up to 24 years old in our transitional housing program. In order for our youth to transition out of public systems, ILSP works to connect these young people with caring and supportive people. Specifically, we offer foster youth college tours, financial assistance to college, job preparation, individual tutoring for homework, GED, or SAT, classes for basic computer skills, recreational activities, assistance with financial savings, assistance for driving lessons, planning for the personal future, and explore options from folks who have also been in the situation that they are currently going through in their life.

What makes you special from others doing similar work?
Because we are! No, but ILSP is special because our programs are youth-driven, and a lot of our programs are actually completely run by youth who are in or have gone through the ILSP program, including our “early” ILSP workshops and other activities for our 14-15 year olds.

Another special program of ours is the “AB 12 youth ambassadors,” also run by youth, where youth train service providers and mentor other youth who are on the fence about whether or not to continue in foster care after 18. We also have a Youth Advisory Board and work with CYC. Through these special opportunities, we do connect current and former foster youth with long-term connections, including adults in the community, but also peer support groups. For example, we have one group of at least 15 foster youth who, on every Wednesday, call each other to make sure everyone in the ILSP network is doing okay. Our youth at ILSP become self-care entities.

What are some of your notable successes?
We are getting a lot of more youth going into college, finding the financial support that they need to finance their education. We have created our own internship program, which has been really great success. Interns work at ILSP and other places around the city. Through the internship program we have gotten kids into promising job training programs and part-time jobs around the city.

What should people expect from ILSP in the future?
Well ILSP has not changed drastically since it first started around 1986. But I think it’s going to change now. We are in a transition, I think it will be different but we’ll have to wait to find out. What I do see staying similar at ILSP is the most important component to our young people: youth-driven work. Our program participants have been very vocal in support of our youth-driven program model. As I mentioned earlier, with the new state law, AB 12, that allows youth to stay in public systems after they turn 18, ILSP will continue to hire its “AB 12 Ambassadors,” who will continue to train social services, mentor youth who are on the fence, and starting workshops.

If you have any questions about San Francisco ILSP, please send an email to Arlene.Hylton@sfgov.org.

Jewish Vocational Services youth employment program now hiring 4 full-time positions

Justin Slaughter — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:19:31 +0000

Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) transforms lives by helping people build skills and find jobs to achieve self-sufficiency. JVS plays a leadership role in collaborative employment and training efforts throughout San Francisco and in workforce policy development and advocacy at local, state and federal levels.

JVS is looking for some qualified candidates for the following full-time positions:

AccelerateSF Employment Specialist/Job Search Skills Instructor (bilingual!)

AccelerateSF Workforce Development Coordinator (bilingual!)

Grants Development Manager (an exciting opportunity for someone with skills including and beyond grant writing)

Director of Planning and Business Development (senior level, full time)

Source: Jewish Vocational Services, May 15, 2012

Young Adult Voices: Interview w/ Verenice Lopez, Young Adult Advisory member, California Youth Connection

Justin Slaughter — Mon, 14 May 2012 23:23:01 +0000

Interview w/ Verenice Lopez, Young Adult Advisory Member, California Youth Connection (CYC)

Name, age, born in San Francisco?
Verenice: I was born and raised in Mexicali, Mexico, but I immigrated to San Francisco about eight years ago with family when I was twelve years old. After I graduated from Abraham Lincoln High school, I entered the foster care system when my mom had to go back to Mexico due to immigration issues and my dad could not support me emotionally nor economically due to his alcoholism and drug addiction. I was in the foster care system from 2008 to 2010, right before I turned 18, and then at 19 years old, I officially emancipated out of the system. Though my foster placement was in San Francisco, I’m currently in transitional housing in San Mateo through the Larkin Street Lease program. I will exit transitional housing on July 13th, probably going to come back to San Francisco. Now I’m studying political science at City College of San Francisco, as part of the Guardian Scholars program. As part of the guardian scholars program, CCSF Guardian Scholars email, I saw CYC was looking for interns, and emailed them about how to join.

What do you do at California Youth Connection?
Verenice: I started an internship with the California Youth Connection (CYC) in September 2011, but I’m going to continue at the end of month when this internship ends, starting a new internship this summer. CYC is a youth-led organization specifically around improving the foster care system through policy changes. CYC is exclusively for foster youth. At the end of this month, my CYC chapter will be finishing their local issue: bullying awareness in foster youth group homes. As a team, we will teach foster youth and staff from group homes that there are solutions to prevent bullying and effective ways to handle it. Next steps on the local issue around bullying in San Mateo, we want to expand our workshops to be facilitated at the San Mateo county school district. In the summer, we will be working a lot towards fundraising for our summer CYC conference in August.

What motivates you to do your work? or Why do you love your job?
Verenice:What motivates me is, when I entered in foster care system I did not knew a lot of foster youth and since my major is political science, I wanted to do something with political action surrounding foster care issues and foster youth. I wanted to help change the system through policy. I wanted to make a change primarily because of my personal experience as an immigrant family and foster care system. I want to make my mother proud of me; this motivates me every day. I like that CYC is more about political action, working directly with groups of youth in San Mateo or San Francisco. The youth in the foster care system have a different culture than from where I come, and it’s exciting to meet new and different people. I like to help them, and I feel that if they see that I am doing this work with CYC, besides my past personal issues, that I can show them that I can be a role model.

Why would you recommend youth to participate in your programs and/or services?
Verenice: I would recommend current or former foster youth to participate in CYC because that’s a way to be involved in an organization that is state-wide, therefore it helps to improve the entire foster care system in all of California. Because of its state-wide cope, youth have the opportunity to go into policy work in the future through CYC, meet legislators, attend workshops, etc. Youth in our program have the chance to travel to other counties, and the chance to join the fun summer conference. CYC improves your professional skills in general, public skills as well. Youth can also meet a bunch of foster care youth like themselves, get more involved in a community that works in political action regarding the foster care system.

What should we expect from you in the future?
Verenice: I will graduate from City College of SF with an associates degree in political science on May 26th 2012. After this semester, I’ll transfer to San Francisco State, major in political science as well. Meanwhile, I will continue with CYC, while looking for other internships or something around policy for the upcoming elections. My long-term, big life goals are to go to law school and work as a criminal defense lawyer for a few years, and then eventually become a judge for United States Superior Court. But for now, I’ll stay involved in political action.

Notes from May 4th Young Adult Advisory

Justin Slaughter — Mon, 14 May 2012 21:11:35 +0000

On Friday May 4, 2012, TAYSF convened its eighth Young Adult Advisory board meeting. This meeting was dedicated to providing the advisory with a report back/follow-up on all the different projects they helped to inform. We wanted to bring facilitators back who have held focus groups with our advisory to find out “what was done with our voice” and “how did the information we provided inform each project.”

Matt Polland, Director of Matchbridge at United Way began with an update on the White House Council for Community Solutions campaign. Because the report has not been released, Matt was not able to tell the advisory how their voice was used. He then gave an update on the SF Summer Jobs+ program and local efforts to provide more employment opportunities for TAY. On May 12, there will be a Summer Jobs+ Resource and Job fair. As of 5/4/12 there are 800 jobs that have been created under this program. The advisory asked questions regarding employment opportunities for undocumented youth and what city departments are doing to employ more youth.

Next, Brian Cheu, Director of Community Development talked about different programs that were funded under the Community Development Block Grant TAY Portfolio. The advisory was informed that the information they provided in the focus group didn’t inform the Request for Proposal (RFP) and that the discussion would be more useful in developing quality standards.

Following Brian’s presentation, Jess Lin, Program Coordinator (Youth Count) talked about where they are in the process. She explained that because they are focusing on the policy landscape, they have yet to conduct the actual count. The advisory was informed that the TAY focus group provided a “youth voice” when they talk to policy makers and the conversation challenged them to do more work around clearly defining what “marginally housed” means. It also provided critical information on incentives.

Then, Jose-Luis gave the TAYSF report back regarding the top things that came out of the advisory meetings to date which are: resource website and the quality standards document. He went over the major themes of the quality standards and expressed some of the challenges of trying to get departments to implement them. One of the major challenges is creating a tool to measure qualitative things such as “staff who genuinely care.”

Next Alma talked about the new logo and gave a website update. The advisory was informed that while the website name they brainstormed and agreed upon was not chosen, however the brainstorming session helped lead to the name that the TAY team chose.

We ended the meeting by presenting the advisory members with announcements including the paid opportunities to continue on the advisory, apply for the TAY Advocate Fellow position and to be on the website marketing committee.

TAYSF Young Adult Engagment Coordinator Jose-Luis joined Nancy Pelosi, Mayor Lee in launch of San Francisco Summer Jobs+

Justin Slaughter — Mon, 14 May 2012 18:51:30 +0000

On April 12, Mayor Ed Lee, Leader Nancy Pelosi, United Way Bay Area CEO Ann Wilson, and youth advocates including TAYSF’s Jose-Luis Mejia announced the launch of San Francisco Summer Jobs+, the city’s response to President Obama’s national call-to-action for businesses, non-profits, and government to provide pathways to employment for low-income and disconnected youth.

United Way Bay Area and the Mayor’s Office are spearheading the local Summer Jobs + initiative, and they have set a goal of 5,000 jobs and paid internships for young people.

To learn more about San Francisco Summer Jobs Plus, including a links to pledge jobs or for youth to register for jobs, please click here. For more information about the national Summer Jobs + initiative, please click here.

Source: City and County of San Francisco, April 12, 2012

Center for American Progress advocates for nat’l Runaway & Homeless Youth Act to focus on LBGT youth

Justin Slaughter — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:26:06 +0000

Photo credit: AP/Paul Sancya

“The current version of the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act makes no mention of gay and transgender youth despite their disproportionate numbers among the youth homeless population and evidence that they face such trying and dangerous circumstances on the streets and in shelters. Congress should explicitly incorporate gay and transgender youth into the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act when the program is considered for reauthorization in 2013. This can be done in four main ways.”

Read full article here.

Source: Mellissa Dunn, Center for American Progress, May 11, 2012

San Francisco Youth Commission calls on youth experienced with Juvenile Hall to come to the Board of Supervisors’ hearing on recreation areas for youth at Juvenile Hall

Justin Slaughter — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:07:37 +0000

When: Thursday, May 17, 2012 @ 4pm
Where: Board of Supervisors Legislative Chamber, Room 250, City Hall, San Francisco

The San Francisco Youth Commission asks any SF youth with experience in Juvenile Hall to come to the Public Safety Committee hearing on recreation and physical activity of Juvenile Hall residents.

The committee will host a presentation from Juvenile Probation Department about the accessibility of the recreation areas at Juvenile Hall & the exercise program for detainees.

This is an opportunity for youth to tell the Supervisors what they think about Juvenile Hall and how to improve recreation access & programs for youth who are locked up at the Hall!

Want to learn more about what this is? Contact the Youth Commission:
(415) 554-6446or email: Youthcom@sfgov.org

Source: Phimy Truong, San Francisco Youth Commission, May 9, 2012

CHALK now hiring San Francisco youth and young adults for Outreach, YouthLINE, & ReSET programs

Justin Slaughter — Wed, 09 May 2012 19:05:57 +0000

CHALK is now hiring SF youth and young adults ages 14-24 for jobs in Outreach or YouthLINE. Youth and young adults in SF who are on probation, and interested in a career involving working with small children (i.e. pre school teacher), can apply for ReSET job program.

Deadline to apply for all is Friday, June 1st, 2012 at 5PM. Download application for Outreach or YouthLINE jobs here, or ReSET program here.

Trainings will take place in the summer and into the fall semester of school. Work 8-20 hours/week on a flexible schedule that includes some nights, weekends, and holidays. No prior experience necessary.

Pay rate is $10.24/hr.

Source: CHALK, May 9, 2012

The Nation magazine talks with Jobs for the Future about vocational education for transitional age youth

Justin Slaughter — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:23:01 +0000

“In a new book, Schooling in the Workplace, Nancy Hoffman of Jobs for the Future argues the United States should adopt a Swiss-style vocational education system, in which students in their last two years of high school have the option of participating in highly structured workplace apprenticeships, working for pay several days per week and spending the rest of the time in the classroom…”

Read the full article here.

Source: Dana Goldstein, the Nation, May 4, 2012