Windsor Star

NEW HOPE FOR NORMAL LIFE

Youth Job Connection big success

- MARY CATON mcaton@postmedia.com

The team of profession­als at the Unemployed Help Centre working in a new program to help at-risk youths get and maintain jobs has heard it all.

There was one young man who went through the training and job skills program who was living in his car at one point. He’s now apprentici­ng to be an auto mechanic.

A job search by another young fellow was badly sidetracke­d when he was suddenly left homeless after a family eviction.

One teenage girl started isolating herself from family and friends, rarely venturing outside her bedroom as she struggled with her gender identity.

The Youth Job Connection program is designed for those between 15 and 29 years old who face multiple barriers to employment.

“We get the most barriered individual­s who have had no one who really cares for them,” said UHC’s Pat Katona, the centre’s supervisor of youth programs. “They have housing issues, health issues, mental-health issues, no food.”

Some have a family support system but many do not.

One fellow comes to the mandatory 60-hours of pre-employment training in flip flops and socks because no one in his family can afford to buy him shoes.

As UHC’s job developer, Andrea Ducharme works with each client to find ways around what she calls “road blocks” to employment.

“They’re facing very real struggles,” Ducharme said. “They didn’t ask for them. People are always looking at the negatives, let’s look at the positives instead.”

The young clients get paid for their mandatory 60 hours of training, which teaches how to job search, how to write a resume and how to market themselves along with workplace norms and expectatio­ns.

The facilitato­rs can also point clients in the right direction for counsellin­g or help with mentalheal­th or substance abuse issues.

Both Ducharme and Katona lament the long wait times for help with mental-health issues.

“We’re just a Band-Aid here,” Katona said. “But without us, some of these kids would fall through the cracks.”

“We see so very many episodes of mental illness,” Ducharme added. “We need more support for mental health.”

After a client completes the training, Ducharme lines them up with a paid job placement to test their new-found skills. She’s developed contacts with businesses both big and small from mom-andpop stores to big-box outlets.

It doesn’t always result in a happy ending. Sometimes a client has to take the program and training two or three times before they really grasp the tools to hold a job.

The Youth Job Connection program started as a pilot project but the results were so good it’s now part of UHC’s services.

Since April, they’ve trained 116 clients at the Windsor office on Cantelon Drive and 101 went onto job placements. Another 98 clients of the Belle River office on Notre Dame Street were trained, with 80 moving on to job placements.

Brandon Wall and Michael Brewer are two of the success stories. They went through the program and both now work full time at the Canadian Tire store on Tecumseh Road West.

“The program showed me how to build a resume, how to look for a job and how a job can turn into a career,” said the 19-year-old Wall. “I didn’t know how to word my volunteer experience in a resume before I took the program. I looked all over and I just couldn’t get a job.”

Wall bounced around different high schools before landing at St. Michael’s alternativ­e school where a co-op teacher mentioned the Youth Job Connection program.

Brewer, 24, had returned to his hometown in Windsor after living out west for a while. He had warehouse work experience from his time in Alberta but his job search was hampered when he suddenly found himself homeless after his family was evicted for not paying rent.

“I was having a hard time,” he said. “I didn’t even have an address for a while.”

A friend told him about the UHC program and now he’s got a regular salary and he’s sharing an apartment with a roommate.

“Now I feel stable and I have someone I can talk to if I’m having any issues,” Brewer said.

Ducharme said UHC staff are involved with clients for about a year-and-a-half between training, job placements and followup.

She’s culled a solid group of employers, such as general manager Mike Strange at the west-side Canadian Tire, who are willing to give these young people a chance.

“We need a lot more employers to buy in,” Ducharme said. “To ask what we can do to support these individual­s. How can we accommodat­e them, maybe it takes longer to train, maybe they learn differentl­y. You have to care enough to give them a chance. This is our future.”

The UHC gets clients directed to them from various local agencies, including the Canadian Mental Health Associatio­n, Windsor Residence, The Inn, youth correction­al services, Ontario Works and high school guidance counsellor­s.

“This story needs to get out into the community,” Katona said. “There are still a lot of people who don’t know this program exists.”

More informatio­n is available at www.uhc.ca or by calling 519944-4900.

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 ?? DAN JANISSE ?? Youth Job Connection grads Mike Brewer, left, and Brandon Wall stock warehouse shelves Wednesday at Canadian Tire.
DAN JANISSE Youth Job Connection grads Mike Brewer, left, and Brandon Wall stock warehouse shelves Wednesday at Canadian Tire.

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