Volunteer mentors empower inner-city youths - Southwest Neighborhood Assembly Youth Activities Task Force, Washington, D.C

Children Today, Jan-Feb, 1990 by Patricia Rowe

While most employers are willing to train inexperienced young people but not to pay them full salaries, in some instances an employer will hire an intern on its own payroll, occasionally offering a higher salary than the minimum wage paid by the Task Force. Last summer, for example, students placed at Children's Hospital earned $5.00 an hour. In a number of cases, a primary objective of the program has been achieved when summer jobs blossomed into year-long, permanent positions.

A Form of Apprenticeship

According to coordinator Maude Stephens, although some youths joining the program may initially have employment difficulties stemming from negative attitudes formed in socially and emotionally deprived backgrounds, "employers are not expected to handle the youths with kid gloves." The Task Force maintains close liaison with employers, who are urged to treat placements as a form of apprenticeship and, accordingly, to devote special attention to the youth by providing close supervision and evaluation. Pointing out that the intern's supervisor completes an evaluation sheet on his or her job performance, Stephens observes, "Kids with negative attitudes often respond positively to caring supervisors. When undisciplined kids realize they are expected to act responsibly on the job, there is often a complete transformation in their attitude and behavior by the end of the summer."

To demonstrate her premise, Stephens cites the case of a somewhat unruly teen who was supervised by a sergeant at Fort McNair. The youth became an industrious worker and is currently employed at a major downtown Washington hotel, where he recently received a salary increase. Acting in the capacity of trouble-shooter, Stephens telephones and visits each job site periodically to monitor each intern's progress, and she maintains close contact with new interns who are apprehensive about starting their first job. She points out that the return placement rate for Task Force youths is impressive--employers frequently request the same students for successive summers and interns, in turn, enjoy returning to the same employers each year.

A Community Model

The enthusiastic endorsement of employers and the success of Task Force interns who are achieving personal growth and realizing career and life goals underscore the program's value as a community resource and model. The USO of Metropolitan Washington believes that the program "is meeting the community's need to replenish the labor market with employable young people who have been provided with the means to make informed career choices." Washington radio station WUST-AM said that the program "is an excellent one in that the student, the business, and the community benefit by its existence." The ABA writes: "Our experience with your young people has been a very positive one. Although we regularly utilize interns at the ABA, they are almost always law or graduate students. The young people you have sent us have contributed a great deal and made many friends--for themselves and for your program. . . . Your program gives the young people of Southwest Washington an opportunity that would otherwise be lacking."