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In Pierce County, over 14,000 people between the ages of 16 and 24 aren’t working, in school, or in any kind of training.
The county refers to this group as “disconnected youth.”
But people are working to change the tide for these young people.
WorkForce Central, the county’s workforce development organization, runs paid internships. These are reaching some of Pierce County’s disconnected youth.
“We have a lot of young adults that are ambitious, a lot of young adults that are looking to get connected to self-sufficient employment, and a lot of times those doors feel closed, and thus you see challenges like 14,000 young adults in our community not working and not in school,” said Christian Reed, the director of Young Adult Initiatives at WorkForce Central, at a recent summit.
Over a five-year period, nearly 60% of program participants have gone on to full-time employment. About 12% of internship participants returned to some sort of schooling after the program. Reed said the paid internships with WorkForce are helping these young people get on a path to success. In those five years, 85% of internship participants have been young adults not working or in school.
“A lot of times, this is the only yes that they hear,” Reed said.
A different kind of success
Regular schooling wasn’t working for Savanah Cisse.
“It was a lot of trying to fight with myself in order to do things that everybody else could do very easily and I just couldn't,” Cisse said.
She tried Running Start and then enrolled at an alternative school in her district. But nothing was clicking. At the same time, Cisse said she was struggling with mental and physical health issues.
Then, the pandemic happened. She dropped out of high school her senior year.
“It was just two and a half years of flying by the seat of my pants and hoping for the best,” Cisse said.
She was working, but she didn’t feel like she was going anywhere.
“I did not feel like a successful human being. I did not feel like I was going to have success,” Cisse said. “ I was just going to have to figure out how to make it work with dead-end jobs and just hope for the best.”
Cisse wanted to leave her job at a motel, but she needed a plan.
“My worry about getting into training was not being able to pay my bills,” Cisse said. “There was just no option at that point because I was living paycheck to paycheck.”
Her therapist told her about WorkForce Central and their programs that help people find new careers. She walked in not knowing what to expect. While working with a career adviser, she found out about the paid internship program.
Interns work with a career coach to find what they’re interested in. The organization works with local employers to place interns. Together, the employer and intern can design work that fits them.
“It was the first time I think somebody had ever explained there are skills outside of what you're being taught in school. There is success that lies beyond just your personality traits,” Cisse said.
Cisse was placed at WorkForce Central for her internship. She got to work with community members who had lost their jobs, were looking to make a career change or needed support with their resume. It was something she felt she could relate to and help with.
“It just stuck. It just made so much sense, and I felt like I was finally kind of working within my own means but also challenging myself in the best way,” Cisse said.
She worked hard to take on more responsibilities. Eventually, she started going to events and helping out in the community. Then, her boss let her lead on a project with a community organization.
“That really changed how I worked, how I moved, how I felt about my own work ethic, and what I was capable of doing,” Cisse said.
What worked for her, Cisse said, was that she could build a pathway for herself and make it work for her.
While Cisse did her internship with WorkForce, a lot of the interns work in different businesses in the county. Over 200 local employers have hosted interns.
What are the limits to this program?
Every year, WorkForce Central oversees about 125 long-term, paid work experiences for disconnected young adults. Right now, the program is full.
Interested young people will have to wait until January, when at least 40 opportunities will open up.
Right now, there’s more need than there is funding, said Katie Condit, the CEO of WorkForce Central. The money comes to WorkForce through multiple funding streams, which includes federal, state and county dollars.
One of the other limits to the program is transportation.
“There can be a perfect fit opportunity for an employer and young person, but transportation is not consistent for the young adult,” Condit said.
That can prove especially challenging for disconnected young people in rural Pierce County. Disconnection does change geographically, with more than half of all disconnected youth in the county in Parkland, Spanaway, Lakewood, University Place and South Tacoma.
’It allows us to invest even more’
Patti McMullan, the owner of Lil Patriots Academy Daycare and Early Learning Center, ended up hiring four interns as full-time employees.
McMullan offers free college credits and a raise to teachers who stay on after three months. She said she’s able to do this because of the program, which reimburses her for a portion of the interns’ wages.
“It allows us to invest even more in our employees,” McMullan said. “I'm one that wants to invest in my employees, and so this helps me do that by giving me a little bit of reprieve on that payroll.”
For Cisse, the internship jump-started her career. When she finished it, she got another one with a different organization, which turned into a job. After that, she returned to WorkForce, where she now works full time.
Cisse said she sees herself as successful now.
“I think the change came from — not the job, necessarily, but the changes in myself from the job. Because of it, I think it gave me the opportunity to change my definition of success for myself,” she said.
