Youth Employment Program

The mission of the Youth Employment Program is to encourage skill development, support career goals, address academic needs and provide a creative and supportive environment for young people. The Center provides both year-round and summer programs including jobs and internships, groups focusing on positive social development, special events and individual educational enrichment. The program provides participants with opportunities for achieving personal goals and developing capacities that will become a foundation for future growth.

The Youth Employment Program reflects the service model that informs the Center's mission: it aims at growth, development, and competency-building through a multiplicity of supports including expanded social relationships and community involvement, access to jobs and education, and mutual peer help.

The following premises, basic to youth development, are at the core of the Center's youth employment programs:

• Work experiences open up meaningful roles for youth in their social world and help them experience themselves as capable, productive, and valuable members of the community.
• Youth need stable and long-term relationships with significant adults.
• Task-related projects that are linked to academic work support and motivate youth's ongoing investment in learning.
• A developmental ladder for youth employment requires a variety of job opportunities, increased knowledge of career options, and age-appropriate work tasks.
• Development of communication skills (listening, speaking, expressing feelings and empathizing with others) is connected to success in the workplace as well as future marital and parenting roles.

Program components include:

Counselors-In-Training Programs offer volunteer work experiences for teenagers ages 14-18, with children in the Center's School-age Child Care programs in P.S. 1 and P.S. 503/506 as well as the afterschool arts programs at M.S. 136.

WAVE is a career exploration program that presents teens ages 14-15 with opportunities to investigate various types of careers. Participants complete a career research project, a resume, cover letter, career essays and college application essays. Upon completion of the project they may also earn an elective academic credit in their school (Fort Hamilton High School or Telecommunications High School).

The Offsite Internship program provides an internship opportunity at various worksites within the Sunset Park community. Teens ages 15-17 are also expected to participate in weekly group meetings that focus on social needs and academic enrichment. Participants also develop and implement a group community service project.

Step-Up offers a transitional work experience for graduating High School students ages 17-18. The goal of this program is to help ease the transition from school to either college or the work force. Participants in this group learn how to apply to college, research and apply for scholarships and financial aid, write resumes, develop job-interviewing skills and launch a successful job search. While the participants receive a monthly stipend, they can also earn bonus incentives for achieving goals in school.

Youth Employment Program
443 39th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11232
(718) 633-4823