Size, population of South County could mean a self-sustaining jobs program
Published in the Oct. 16, 2013 issue of Morgan Hill Life.
By John Hogan
John Hogan
The TeenForce team feels like family in Morgan Hill and South County. Our nonprofit youth jobs program has been welcomed and embraced by key business, community and government leaders. We hope to use this column to explain how Morgan Hill can become the model community for a self-sustaining jobs program that serves the needs of youth, businesses and the entire community.
TeenForce is a social enterprise that uses a staffing agency model to solve the youth employment crisis while meeting the hiring needs of local businesses. We recruit, train, prepare and hire youth for placement in a variety of jobs from health care to technology to retail. Businesses are happy to work with TeenForce youth because they are pre-screened, enthusiastic and ready to work. TeenForce handles all of the hiring and payroll details, making it easy for employers who don’t typically hire youth to get involved. Because businesses reimburse TeenForce for its payroll and administrative costs, the program is designed to be self-sustaining and requires minimal grant funding and no government support.
The TeenForce motto is “Our Teens, Our Jobs, Our Community.” The idea is that local communities will embrace a program that is designed to introduce and support their youth in jobs right in the community. If every business hires just one youth, we can develop a fully self-sustaining program that will thrive in the future and become the on-ramp to employment. This is particularly important for disadvantaged youth who don’t have family connections and networks to help them get started in the workforce.
The TeenForce program is open to all youth ages 14 to 20. For youth who have been in the foster care system, we extend the age range to 24. Former foster care youth are particularly vulnerable. By 20, they have these alarming outcomes: 33 percent arrested, 25 percent homeless and 46 percent unemployed. TeenForce seeks to connect them to a series of employment and education.
TeenForce was launched in 2010 in Los Gatos. We expanded to San Jose in 2011. So far, we have employed more than 300 youth who have earned almost $1 million. Last year, 61 percent of our youth hours were worked by current and former foster youth. Our program was recently recognized by the White House, where we received a Champion of Change award for our work with the Obama Administration’s Youth Jobs+ program. President Barrack Obama himself spoke at the award ceremony.
Despite this success and recognition, we haven’t “perfected” our formula, and this is why we are so excited about the welcome we have received in Morgan Hill and South County. It turns out that Los Gatos was a little too small to generate sufficient jobs to become self-sustaining. San Jose is a little large to be defined as a single community. We believe South County, with a population of about 100,000 and a well-defined geographic and community spirit, may be “just right” to build the first self-sustaining TeenForce branch.
We look forward to engaging with you to tell you more about how this can happen. Thus far, we have received tremendous support from the Morgan Hill Chamber, Mayor Steve Tate, Police Chief David Swing and leaders from Realty World People to People, Kiwanis, Intero Real Estate and Rotary Club. We have been warmly received at the Taste of Morgan Hill, Gavilan College and by Living Above The Influence.
For more information, please visit www.teenforce.org or contact us at (408) 827-3078.
John Hogan is the founder and full-time volunteer CEO of TeenForce.
