Youth with Peckham RAMP talked with pharmacy staff during their career exploration scavenger hunt in June 2011.
Summer jobs are increasingly hard for young people to obtain these days, but thankfully youth programs across the country are offering other types of opportunities for young people to engage in career preparation and work-based learning. One such program is the Ready to Achieve Mentoring Program (RAMP), a career focused mentoring program for youth with disabilities involved in or at risk of being involved in the juvenile justice system.
Last month, I had the fortunate opportunity to visit the RAMP site at Peckham Inc., in Lansing, Michigan. Although I’ve worked with the RAMP program on an administrative level for some time now, this was my first time seeing the program in action, and, I must say, it was really something.
The youth at Peckham RAMP have many opportunities throughout the year to explore careers through guest speakers, worksite tours, and other interactive learning strategies. In addition, each youth gains hands-on experience related to their career area of interest through job shadowing with various employers around Lansing, Michigan. While visiting them this June, I was able to see firsthand one of the innovative ways the program engages youth in career exploration during the summer months - through a career scavenger hunt.
For the scavenger hunt, the youth at Peckham formed three teams, each of which was chauffeured around Lansing by a staff member in search of places of potential employment or job shadowing. The youth were told to pick places to visit based on their interests and that they would be awarded points based on what they did at those places: one point for taking a picture in front of the organization or business, two points for having a picture taken with an employee, three points for collecting applications, and five points for filling the applications out.
They were given one hour to see what they could accomplish. While the one-hour limit was challenging, the time constraint and the competitive nature of the event forced the youth to think strategically about which places to visit. It was great to see them actively thinking about where they would like to work and about what careers at those places might entail. As we drove around, the youth would brainstorm about where they would like to go and made suggestions for their friends whose interests they were familiar with. For example, some youth who were interested in health careers visited a pharmacy and a hospital. Others who were interested in law careers visited the court house and a police station. (How often do youth voluntarily run INTO a police station?)
Once we arrived at a destination the youth rushed in and did not hesitate to approach an employee and explain why they were there. What was even more surprising and encouraging was the level of interest the employers showed in the youth and the RAMP program. One would not have been surprised to see a look resembling that of horror on the faces of a business owner who has just witnessed 10 teenage boys energetically storm into their place of business, but, in fact, the employers and employees were more than happy to talk to the youth and be a part of their scavenger hunt.
The employers even seemed to want more time with the youth. An auto mechanic that we visited had heard of Peckham and wanted to know more about RAMP and what the students were doing, while others seemed intrigued by the prospect of bringing on youth for potential job shadows. The pharmacist brought out the entire staff to take a picture with the RAMP youth and the police officer gushed enthusiastically about the many potential legal careers on the force.
While the youth were learning about local employers, practicing communication skills, and making connections, the RAMP program was also making connections that could lead to some new employer partnerships. This simple activity was a great way to introduce employers to the program and could lead to even more opportunities for youth to explore different career paths.
For me, this represented a beacon of light in an otherwise bleak Michigan economy. As a Michigan native who left the state to find work in Washington, DC, I know far too well the difficulties that many people in cities like Lansing face, and yet, here were employers that seemed more than ready to help these youth cultivate the skills that would make them competitive in today’s workforce.
This experience left me wondering about the untapped potential in communities across the country – how many other employers and community members are out there, willing to help but not aware of how to get involved or waiting for someone to walk in their door and make a connection?
We all have a vested interest in the success of these young people as they will soon be the drivers of the American economy. It only makes sense that people would have an inherent desire to be a resource and a positive influence for them.
This scavenger hunt was only one small example of the career focus at Peckham RAMP, but it serves as a powerful example of how young people and youth programs can reach out to their community for the support that they need. It is career exploration activities like this one that lead to job shadowing, internships, and, perhaps eventually, satisfying employment for young people.
In these hard times, reaching out and sharing our career experiences and insights with youth in our community is something we can all do to make a difference.
To learn more about Peckham RAMP in Lansing, MI, visit their website.
Visit the RAMP website to learn more about this national program model and its foundations, including the Guideposts for Success, Paving the Way to Work: A Guide to Career Focused Mentoring, and Plotting the Course for Success.
To conduct your own career scavenger hunt, first develop career and education-related questions to ask employers and professionals in different careers (Find examples of questions on the Internet - Example 1 /Example 2) and then visit local businesses and organizations.
By Jason Farr, Program Associate, National Collaborative on Workforce & Disability for Youth at the Institute for Educational Leadership Center for Workforce Development.
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