New Project Helps Teenagers Find Jobs

By Post Staff

“If the elevator is broken, we still go up to the twelfth floor with the package,” said Jasmine Shields, Human Resource Specialist at United Parcel Service.
“You take that little dolly and you go up and then you go up again, until you deliver them all.
“I want you to sit down and think, beyond the paycheck, about want you want for the future and if this job can help you get what you want – pay for college, support yourself, or health coverage.”
It was a Thursday afternoon last week, and 30 teenage perspective job applicants listened intently as they learned first hand what they could expect if they went to work for UPS.
Shields and Keisha Lee Cavil, UPS HR Manager, were the first job recruiters to participate in a new program, the Oakland Citywide Youth Jobs Initiative (OCYJI), designed to help local teenagers, especially foster care youth, to successfully navigate the world of work.OCYJI is based at the Downtown One Stop Center, 1212 Broadway, operated by the Oakland Private Industry Council (PIC). The program utilizes PIC’s resources to develop jobs in key industries and make them available to young people who live in Oakland, as well as to provide information and support to Oakland employers to help them hire and retain young workers.
Through the program, there is support for young people, not only to learn what it is like to work for companies like UPS but with help to fill out an application and to prepare for and go to an interview
Furthermore, the job opportunities are real. UPS is hiring over 50 part time drivers’ helpers and package handlers.
Staffing the program are two youth peer advisors, Kenya Holloman and Ralph Hall, former foster care youth themselves who are now in college. They provide the young people with counseling, support and advice.
Gap Inc. and The San Francisco Foundation are providing the funds for the project. Partnering agencies include the Independent Living Skills Program, First Place Fund for Youth, Beyond Emancipation and Pivotal Point.
An ongoing series of six free job readiness workshops are offered to increase employment skills for foster care youth, ages 16-24.  For more information, contact Robin Raveneau at (510) 768-4402, or rraveneau@oaklandpic.org.