YOUTH FUTURES Expanding the program
Hiring a Youth Futures participant for the past two summers has been such a success at the law firm of Borden Ladner Gervais that managing partner Marc Jolicoeur is considering taking on two students next year. Any why not? The Youth Futures program — which is part leadership training, part employment opportunity, part post-secondary school mentoring for low-income youth — appears to prepare students admirably for their summer job placements.
“I am just impressed by the quality of the candidates,” says Jolicoeur. “They bring a level of maturity that is rarely seen of kids their age.”
Employers who hire Youth Futures participants are responsible for paying them. But as the law firm hires summer students regularly, it isn’t a hardship to bring in one or two Youth Futures teens instead of the friends and family members who often get those jobs.
Jolicoeur is so supportive of the program he even hosted a breakfast earlier this year for prospective employers. “The feedback we got was quite positive.”
But the fact remains that BLG is one of just four private companies involved in Youth Futures. And that needs to change for the program to expand. A key draw of Youth Futures is the summer job guaranteed to each participant who completes the program. The jobs provide not only muchneeded funds, but valuable experience, the opportunity to meet people who could help the teens later on and, in some instances, a chance to keep that job the following summer.
Aaron Burry is the city’s general manager of community and social services and one of the forces behind Youth Futures.
He says there are easily 250 qualified youths in Ottawa right now who could benefit from the program. But Youth Futures can only take up to 75 students and there’s no room for expansion without more money and more involvement from several stakeholders.
“We need more partners,” Burry says bluntly.
To be fair, for the program to grow, Youth Futures needs more than just additional private-sector jobs. Another location and more staff would be required. Still, the new jobs are essential.
“Employers would actually get quite a bit of value from these young students,” says Jolicoeur, although ideally companies should offer some additional attention, whether it’s inviting the student into strategy sessions or senior staff meetings, or just checking in with them regularly. “And we hear from our staff they get a lot out of it, working with these young students.”
Burry agrees that it’s more than just the young people who benefit from participating in Youth Futures.
“I think that the more employers get involved with it, the more it starts to change how employers think in this city,” says Burry. “Because it’s also exposing them to the new realities of what the city looks like. We’re not the only employer who’s going to go through this adaptation to reflect who it is that actually lives in our community.”
— Joanne Chianello
In some ways, the most amazing thing about James, Aye-Lama and Marina’s stories is that they’re not that unusual, at least not in Youth Futures.
A single program can’t fix the underlying issues of poverty, and that includes Youth Futures. Indeed, it’s not even clear how successful the program is when it comes to encouraging participants to apply to university and college (although a study is underway). But while helping low-income youth see themselves at post-secondary school is a laudable goal, it’s also not the only benefit of the program.
We can all point to a moment where we got a lucky break, even just a tiny one, from being in the right place at the right time, from knowing someone who knows someone who might be able to offer you something.
And that’s what Youth Futures is — a tiny break that introduces some of the city’s most vulnerable youth to people they likely would never have met. It’s a program that allows someone like Aye-Lama to rub shoulders with one of the most important lawyers in the city. It’s given James the wherewithal to work at one of the city’s A-list restaurants where the staff have already taken him under their wing. It tapped Marina, who wasn’t sure about finishing high school, and showed her college programs that are completely within her grasp.
These opportunities may not seem breathtaking, but that’s not how life works. Especially not for these kids. Though life hasn’t offered them much, Youth Futures has offered them a chance.