Obama is Missing the Chance to Change the Course for America’s At-Risk Youth
In the midst of the highest levels of unemployment in the past 50 years, a unique opportunity has opened up for President Obama to change the course of opportunity for youth and he is missing it.
Similar to the feat that lay before President Roosevelt in the 1930s, President Obama faces a nation that is wading in the murky uncertainty that we call a recession. With the bleakness of our current condition there comes an opportunity just over the horizon for President Obama to implement a program that will put the jobless back to work and provide the lifesaving breath that our country so desperately needs.
The challenge, however, is multifold. Although President Roosevelt struck gold with his “New Deal” in the 30s, it was not embraced by all Americans because it did not encompass all Americans. In fact when given a critical look, his program which made jobs available to many, turned a cold shoulder to a large demographic of individuals, namely Women and minorities. Deemed the largest job creation effort in history, Roosevelt’s plan almost exclusively created jobs designed for white, male, manual labor. The result was a return to the workforce for many, but not nearly enough to address the needs of all out of work Americans.
Demographics have changed significantly since then, and while the tide of the workforce has changed tremendously to encompass both women and minorities in the workplace, there is still an underrepresented voice that must be heard and acknowledged. Youth. In a society where the world has become increasingly fast-paced and technologically progressive, it is imperative to not only involve today’s youth in the future of job creation, but also to recruit their efforts.
In his address to schools across America earlier this year, President Obama spoke about the opportunities that youth are able to create for themselves by continuing their education and by working hard. Yes, many youth already know this. What millions of youth don’t know is that these opportunities are just not there. High unemployment has unleashed many skilled, college educated workers into the jobs reserved for the energetic young job seeker.
It is time for the Obama administration to focus on the issues of jobs for youth. Current levels of unemployment have eliminated the few job opportunities that previously existed for youth. It’s time to step in the right direction and an analysis of Roosevelt’s New Deal program can help show the way.
The Federal One Program, a highlight of Roosevelt’s New Deal, consisted of five distinct components. Each of these efforts tapped into the cultural capital of the nation: The Federal Writers Project, The Federal Theater Project, The Federal Arts Project, The Federal Music Project and the Historical Records Survey Project. These components focused on job creation for those who were not served well in traditional New Deal programs. Using similar framework, President Obama has a prime opportunity to create jobs for youth in a manner that utilizes the wealth of youth resources that have to date been virtually untapped.
With the continued innovative thought that has embodied the Obama Administration, the opportunity to create a more all-encompassing Federal One Project is ripe. The Obama Administration has the ability to create a massive job creation program that utilizes the cultural and highly influential power of young people. By harnessing this power, this administration has the ability to reconnect with millions of disenchanted youth and promote the prosperity in America that has been envisioned.
Just a few examples - the administration can revamp the Federal Theater Project. Similar to the new Deal, local youth artists, rappers, dancers and performers can develop and deliver a series of performances educating their peers on ways to deal with life’s challenges and ways to avoid violence.
A newly formed Federal Music Project could offer local Community Based Organization grants to support artists committed to creating positive music dealing with issues of violence, education and substance abuse. This effort is particularly essential in today’s society where the rap and television media heavily influence youth and have the ability to engage them. Think of how powerful this project could be if these media outlets were used by youth to reach youth with messages that promote positive and healthy lifestyles.
Finally, a Federal Arts project could use the expertise of local artists to interview and take pictures of former at-risk youth who made the transition to successful careers. They can create “What They Are Wearing Now Murals Across the U.S.” - a peer based way to show the transition of successful youth from street clothes to work success. A great replacement for all those “Successory” postesr adoring program walls.
There now exists a new opportunity to take the cultural interest of youth and turn it into a positive movement that can transform a community and create effective and lasting change.
There has never been a better time than the present, and there have never been more youth resources than there are now. The vision that President Obama has strived to pass on to the country is attainable and sustainable through the utilization of all of Americans. We simply need our progressive leadership to be exactly that-progressive.
What the Obama Administration Needs to Know About Reaching Youth
In the effort to guide our youth in a direction that promotes financial economic opportunity, continued growth, and enhanced education, it is imperative that the Obama administration take a long hard look at the signals that they send. Time has proven that the old method of doing things is simply that-old.
Youth are non-responsive to the methods that brow-beat them, and attack the popular culture that they have embraced and identify with. The fact that popular culture is often at the core of their personalization, is a fact that must be understood and dealt with in a manner that separates whatever disdain may be held by policy makers for this popular culture from the positive that can be derived and utilized in reaching them on their level.
By understanding what motivates and drives our youth, recognizing and acknowledging their concerns, and making a genuine effort to relate to them by creating some sort of common ground, policy makers open the lines of communication and begin to bridge the gap that has been ever-widening. The age old “Father knows best,” theory has been generally based on a platform that suggests that “I talk and you listen.”
This dominant and dictatorship method does not work, and often serves to make youth “turn up the volume” of the music in their heads. When it becomes clear that they are the only ones grooving to the beat of what drives them, they shut down and look elsewhere to find the answers and help they need. Often times, they don’t find it, and the downward spiral becomes a cycle of despair and inevitable doom.
Obviously as concerned citizens, no one wants to see a child fail, however not many policy makers are willing to take a step back and realize that perhaps their methodology is one of the barriers that makes success a pipe dream versus a reality for our nation’s youth and young adults. Policy makers and society as a whole have to shed their judgmental ideations about the popular culture teens have adopted, and begin to ask the hard questions. What is the message?
The seeming fixation on fast cash and “Pimpin Rides’” don’t necessarily indicate that teens condone the methods of obtaining the lifestyle depicted, but it does indicate that financial stability is of huge importance. Teens want to have some control over their futures and having grasped the dynamics of society, they do understand that money brings power. What parents, educators, and teen programs must do is find the thread that ties the ability to gain financial prosperity with the necessity of becoming educationally, emotionally, and physically sound.
By making this connection, policy makers have introduced a path that is alternative to the negatives that they perceive in popular culture, and still strikes commonality with youth by addressing their underlying concerns about their future. Connecting with youth is by far a task that is ongoing, and requires policy makers and practitioners to develop a systematic way of utilizing youth popular culture, peer influence and youth involvement in a way that promotes life, freedom and young people’s future economic opportunity.
This stuff is not taught: it’s caught. Policy makes must keep their thumb on the pulse of what relates to youth. The difference is that with today’s youth, that thumb cannot be used to apply the pressure of dominance that once worked. Teens are smarter and more conscious than ever, and want to be acknowledged as the authority of what is important to them as opposed to being told that they are giving up on their country when they drop-out of school. Adults must relinquish this notion, and consider that it’s us who gave up on them.
Edward DeJesus is the President and Founder of the Youth Development and Research Fund (www.ydrf.com). Reprint permitted with the author’s expressed permission from the Youth Engagement Blog.
Brown Jobs Now!
A Workforce Practitioner’s Plea to Turn Job Creation, Leadership On Its Head.
As a youth workforce development professional for the past 20 years, I have rolled with the punches, promoting and carrying out the order of the day in the effort of preparing youth for the employment world. First, I was told to emphasize pre-employment work maturity competencies, then focus on high stakes high standard testing.  From there I was prompted to help build an employer demand driven workforce system. And now — Green jobs. At this stage, I have grown weary of following an uninformed agenda. How is it that those who don’t work in the field can make up these terms for those who do, as if they have a better read on the young people we serve?
Let’s keep it real for a minute. The young people I work with are facing challenges that reach far beyond the realm of pre-employment work maturity training. Â How do you hold youth accountable to high standards when they’re dealing with the issues of a substandard living system? Â How exactly do you take the hardest to serve, most at-risk youth and turn them into Lockheed Martin’s employee of the month six months later? I may be a lot of things, but magician is not one of those things, and it is that sort of unrealistic thinking that made the employer demand driven workforce system laughable. So now, I can’t help but wonder what miracle they want me to perform with Green Jobs.
Now don’t get me wrong - saving the planet and job creation is a good thing. Many of my colleagues would have me hog-tied and bull-whipped for speaking out against any job creation strategy that would put opportunity in the path of blue collar workers. And I agree. But I think there is something else that we are missing. We’re missing the power and potential of Brown Jobs.
What is a Brown Job? Brown Jobs reflect the ultimate in reciprocity. These are the jobs where the unemployed are trained to help the unemployed, the poor are given the opportunity to help the poor, and the undereducated are trained to educate the uneducated. Â These are the jobs where those that are forgotten and overlooked become the advocates for those who look exactly like they did once upon a time, with the most important aspect of their job is to make sure that they are not overlooked and undervalued again.
Community service, right? Wrong. Brown jobs are career tracked jobs that are tailor-made for the most disenfranchised. Â Do-good students from Ivy League Colleges and Universities looking to spruce up their resumes won’t fit the bill because this type of work requires the ability to relate on a level that goes deeper then something you’ve “read about.”
Why Brown jobs? Simply put, the hard work has to be done by someone and who better than the youth who have lived the struggle? After all, the real battle often takes place in the communities well after the hours of 9 to 5. Who better than youth to fit this bill?
There are none better than the youth we serve to fill in these gaps. Why? Because they are already there! Any youth worker will tell you that our goal is to make sure that when youth leave our program, our program never leaves them. Let’s put these youth to work in Brown jobs, uplifting their peers, community, and improving the educational and workforce system. The benefits for such an investment will be huge. The Brown Job Industry would fulfill the following:
- Sufficient job creation for poor unemployed youth.
- Youth entry-level positions that allow for rapid progression through a combination of experience, education, and on-the job training.
- Long-term benefit within affected communities and the society as a whole.
Leadership Comes From Within
The only way to effectively reach the youth is with help from the youth.
This is a concept we as youth workers have embraced for several years. It only takes a couple of seconds of observation to see the enormity of the gap in communication between the average middle class educator and the young people they are supposed to assist. Instead of considering the road that has been traveled, many educators sit on their side of the table, judging the young person they see on the other side of the table. Â Before properly assessing the situation, acknowledging the challenges that were overcome up to that point, they’d rather declare that they don’t have a chance. They’d rather assume there must be some sort of gang affiliation, or question why they dress or look the way they do.
What they need to say is, “I feel your struggle and I understand your hustle. Let us work together to find a way out of this mess.”
Who understands youth better than youth?
Though I constantly hear clueless policymakers speak about reducing the drop-out rate, solving the unemployment rate, and getting more youth off the streets and into programs, they tend to get quiet when the question of where all these new teachers and support are coming from. They’re talking a good game, but if you can’t deliver, why waste the breath?
It is my opinion that more youth will find more successful, productive work in the human service system than in the green industry, which may lead to nothing more than moving shrubs and clearing bushes. Â The report, 7 Myths about Green Jobs published by the University of Illinois and Case Western University challenges the efficacy of the Green Jobs Model. Programs already have a hard time getting youth off the streets and into the construction labor unions. What makes the Green Industry any different?
There’s one caveat. It is our responsibility to make these jobs permanent and incorporate them into the matrix of our human service system. For the past three years, YDRF has pushed Peer Support Workers (PSWs) as an entry level path to the workforce development system. Groups of trained and paid youth with intent focus on program and peer development activity should adorn every school, GED class and Job Training program. Â The PSW will have a detailed career track to other positions in the organization and within the civil service system.
It should come to us as no surprise that if we keep using traditional measures to select teachers and youth workers, those who fall outside those traditional measures will be discounted and overlooked. Consequently the Ivy League student gets more opportunities to work in the hood than the committed, ex -offender who knows the error of his ways and is committed to making sure no one walks down that path.
If we continue to use these traditional measures for building the human service workforce, we will get the same substandard, lack-luster results we’ve always gotten, and we will deny the opportunity of a new breed of workers to carry the torch to take their peers into the 21st Century, fight injustice, and advocate for those who are undervalued and overlooked.
The new Brown economy is an economy of service to our fellow humans, the ones who need it most. It is ready and waiting for us to put it in force. Let’s put those who’ve been there, back there and watch what happens.
Edward DeJesus is the President and Founder of the Youth Development and Research Fund (www.ydrf.com). Reprint permitted with the author’s expressed permission from the Youth Engagement Blog.