PowerCorpsPHL trains Philly youth for careers that have a future
February. xi, 2020
Cashmir Woodward knew she didn't want to stay in her job as a home health aide forever. Just as a single mom with a juvenile record, she didn't recollect she had many other options.
Then, a friend told her about PowerCorpsPHL, a Metropolis of Philadelphia workforce evolution initiative operated past the nonprofit Instruction Works, that thoughtfully addresses iii of our city'southward biggest challenges—youth disconnection; youth violence; and citywide ecology sustainability—by braiding together solutions that are effective, impactful and research-backed.
Within weeks of enrolling in the plan, a support staffer at PowerCorpsPHL had helped Woodward get childcare and social security benefits for her son, and helped her brainstorm the process of getting her juvenile tape expunged.
At present, Woodward is almost 20 weeks into the program, getting paid to railroad train to work in green stormwater infrastructure (GSI)—a field that offers long-term career and salary growth, and the chance to make a departure on a larger-scale than her previous job.
"I felt similar what I was doing earlier PowerCorpsPHL wasn't plenty, and now I can take a real bear upon on our city and its futurity," she says. "I desire other young people, including those with records, to know that PowerCorpsPHL will take yous without judgement and piece of work with yous, no matter what." Notably, while the citywide recidivism rate for Philly is 45 pct, the charge per unit for PowerCorpsPHL members is 8 per centum.
A RAND Corporation study released terminal month found that 75 percent of
think people are not graduating with the skills needed for 21st century jobs, and a Department of Labor study released in 2022 establish that government job-grooming programs were largely ineffective.
But studies have shown that service-year programs—those, like PowerCorpsPHL, that pay participants to develop real-world skills with hands-on service—not only improve career opportunities for youth and empower them financially and emotionally, but relieve our country billions of dollars.
"I felt like what I was doing before PowerCorpsPHL wasn't plenty, and now I can accept a real touch on our city and its future," Woodward says.
Since 2013, the organization, which was launched equally a hybrid initiative between Philadelphia Youth Network and Education Works under Mayor Michael Nutter in collaboration with AmeriCorps, has welcomed 662 Philly youth through information technology's multi-stage program.
About lx percent of incoming members have adult criminal records; x percent come through the foster arrangement; others come up from alternative high schools, via word-of-oral fissure referrals or while seeking a veritable gap year to figure out plans for their futurity. (All members must have a GED or loftier schoolhouse diploma.)
Members receive training in 21st-century fields through "Industry Academies": Urban Forestry University, Greenish Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) University, and Solar and Electrical Academy.
A new cohort of nigh 60 members starts each September and March.
During phase one, which lasts 17 weeks, members earn $10 an hour while focusing on piece of work-readiness, career-exploration and team-building activities, like planting trees, which serves the benefits of increasing Philly's canopy, yes, but also of building trust and boosting confidence.
"Members can run across the tangible results of their efforts; knowing that they've transformed Philly's landscape and that those trees will be hither for the next 100 years is powerful," says Julia Hillengas, PowerCorpsPHL's executive director, while pointing out recently planted copse along Kelly Drive.
Phase two comes with three options, which vary in elapsing from 2 19-week sessions to 46 weeks. This is when members pursue Industry Academies, learning in-need skills alongside government, nonprofit and industry mentors, like the Philly Water Department (PWD) or Bartlett Tree Experts.
Participants tin seek career-specific training in other fields of interest and enroll in post-secondary schoolhouse; or they can become banana crew leaders (ACLs) at PowerCorpsPHL, receiving on-the-job training in peer leadership and customs outreach.
In stage two, all members earn $eleven per hr. Attrition is nearly 25 percent in phase 1, and only 15 per centum in phase ii.
PowerCorpsPHL facilitates connections to employment or post-secondary teaching for about 92 percent of its members, and offers lifelong access to back up services for all alumni.
Starting wages for alumni range from $12 to $xviii per hour, depending on what industry they pursue. That may sound meager to outsiders, only PowerCorpsPHL is mindful of training members in fields that accept high growth potential and a articulate-cut ladder to climb.
And PowerCorpsPHL doesn't solely address job preparedness and education: The arrangement sees members holistically, working with them to knock down barriers that might otherwise hinder their success.
A total-time social worker counsels members on their mental health needs and tin can refer them to medical clinics or for additional back up.
Kea Greene, PowerCorpsPHL's supportive services advisor (forth with a colleague who works office-time when not at CHOP), helps members get their SNAP benefits, or sign upward for childcare through CCIS.
She helps them claim AmeriCorps tuition benefits ($half dozen,000 per twelvemonth of service) and fill out the kind of tedious paperwork that tin fall by the wayside for anyone, allow alone someone struggling with food insecurity or homelessness, every bit incoming members frequently practice.
Funding for the program comes from many channels.
AmeriCorps funding is awarded to the metropolis, and distributed to PowerCorpsPHL. Additionally, four urban center departments pay into a match for the grant: Office of Workforce Evolution, Department of Human Services, Philadelphia Water, Philadelphia Parks & Recreation.
Non-urban center funding comes from Philadelphia Works and individual foundations and donors, William Penn Foundation and Spring Point Partners (also a supporter of The Citizen).
"Where so many of us come from, nosotros're used to negative things and cleaved promises," Lopez says. "I had to learn to trust the team here, and they never permit me down. I desire others to encounter me and my journey and know that it can be theirs besides."
It'south hard to quantify a per-member budget, given that members stay anywhere from four months to ii years, only 47 percentage of the system'due south total upkeep goes toward wages, and the average budget-per-member is approximately $26,000.
"We have some really fun and quirky partners and champions who come from all walks of life, and the common thing among them is that they get that people are astonishing and circuitous and beautiful, and they're going to look all different ways," says Hillengas, a former teacher and customs organizer who's been with PowerCorpsPHL for 7 years. "What PowerCorpsPHL is really practiced at is creating a space of seeing people, valuing them, respecting them. We talk a lot about love."
Allisa "Angel" Lopez went through the PowerCorpsPHL training in 2022 and now works on staff as the alumni counselor, organizing professional development workshops and helping out in whatever fashion she's needed.
Similar Lopez, 20 percent of PowerCorpsPHL staff have come through the program. Lopez says that PowerCorpsPHL changed her life in unimaginable ways.
"I crush the statistics," she says ane winter afternoon from PowerCorpsPHL's new training middle on the ground floor of the quondam Vaux Large Picture High School edifice in Sharswood. "I come from the 'hood. I dropped out of high school twice. I was in foster intendance. At present, I'm a starting time-generation college student."
More than than that, Lopez says, she'southward a function model, proof to others coming through the programme that, with PowerCorpsPHL's support, they can overcome the odds—and that she truly understands them.
"Where and so many of us come from, we're used to negative things and broken promises," she says. "We come from environments where our trust is broken, and then we often have a wall up. I had to learn to trust the team here, and they never let me down. I want others to see me and my journeying and know that it can exist theirs likewise."
While women typically brand up about 20 to 25 percent of teams in GSI, Woodward says she'due south trying to recruit more women to enter the field. "The guys practise non light upwards on us at all. They actually make certain that we tin do just what they can practice," she says.
She's particularly grateful for a women'due south leadership programme that Greene started, called Ladies First. Men, too, go extra back up through a plan chosen Healing Hurt People.
Greene, Hillengas, Lopez and the residue of the 29-person PowerCorpsPHL staff believe in supporting crew members any mode they need to. Lopez will call members to make certain they're upwards for work in the morn. That dedication comes from the staff'due south belief in the potential of every unmarried member who joins their ranks.
Says Greene, "We know that if they complete the program, and then PowerCorpsPHL is going to modify their lives."
Want more than jobs news? Check out these related posts:
- This West Philly jobs initiative is the model of inclusive growth cities need
- Sun Beloved Project expands to help the homeless find eating place jobs
- Philly businesses stride up to help people with disabilities observe good jobs
- Starting time Step Staffing connects vulnerable people with jobs in Philadelphia
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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/powercorpsphl-philadelphia/
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