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Seattle Human Services news and events

Looking Back at 2021 as We Look Forward to 2022

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Our Mission to connect people with resources and solutions during times of need so we can all live, learn, work, and take part in strong, healthy communities continued to hold a greater sense of urgency in 2021. Over this past year, the Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) continued to be one of the largest contributors to Seattle’s safety net, and our staff and community of human service providers continued to be a part of the front-line response to COVID-19. HSD also worked to advance our Mission by adapting programs and rising to challenges to ensure all of our communities have access to the opportunity to thrive. And we couldn’t do it without the partnership and efforts of friends and community members.

As we take on new bodies of work in 2022, we move forward committed to helping people grow up and grow old with opportunity and dignity and will work to support and empower diverse communities across Seattle. We are proud to share some of the highlights from 2021, and we are grateful for the help and hard work many of you provided us to realize these achievements.

COVID-19:

Round sticker design with text I got my COVID-19 Vaccine #BestShotSeattle
  1. Aging & Disability Services (ADS) helped 14,000 clients secure COVID-19 vaccine appointments and 1,350+ in-home vaccine screenings. Staff also assisted in standing up 120 vaccine clinics in SHA building and other community-based locations.
  2. Wellspring reported distributing 70 checks totaling an additional $81,200 in cash assistance from the Hospitality Worker Emergency Relief Fund. The cumulative dispersed amount for the Fund is 1,520 checks totaling $2,023,00 in cash assistance. The total amount dedicated to the Fund is $2,170,000.
  3. Seattle Relief Fund provided over $16 million in direct cash assistance for vulnerable low-income residents impacted by COVID-19.

Preparing Youth for Success:

Tilth Alliance staff and two SYEP interns standing out in a field
  1. Seattle Summer Food Service Program distributed 82,903 meals including lunches, breakfasts, and snacks at 39 sites throughout Seattle, including parks and Seattle Public Schools.
  2. Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP) supported 328 paid youth opportunities through its Earn and Learn program and employment internships, which ranged from environmental work to media production and much more.

Supporting Affordability and Livability:

Ad graphic with text including "We're here to help." seattle.gov/UDP
  1. HSD provided funding for 214,549 food bank visits (duplicated) and 1,457,972 meals through meal programs (at PSH, ES, and Community meals).
  2. 7,183 new Utility Discount Program (UDP) customers were enrolled.

Promoting Public Health:

  1. ADS staff helped lead the large-scale transition of the state’s “Get Care” Database which involved training and supporting 132 individuals and 32 agencies.
  2. The nationally recognized Mobile Integrated Health Program partnership continued to increase the service area for Health One and added a second Seattle Fire unit to respond to referrals, and announced the launch of a third unit in 2022.

Addressing Homelessness:

City employees assisting with Exhibition Hall shelter operations
  1. As the Homeless Strategy & Investment (HSI) division moved towards its year-end sunset the team held steady on its commitment to increase access to safer spaces and to keep COVID protections in place across shelters. In 2021, a net 380 new shelter beds were created by year-end, with 350 new 24/7 non-congregate shelter spaces in the last quarter. Currently the City funds approximately 2,800 total shelter spaces, a 700-shelter unit increase over levels at the end of 2020. Additionally, 92% of City-funded shelter spaces are now 24/7 enhanced with wraparound onsite services – this compares to 75% pre-pandemic (Q4 2019).
  2. The team has also been working to close out over 160 contracts that the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) will take on starting this month.
  3. And over the course of a nine-day severe weather shelter activation that ended January 3 in response to prolonged cold temperatures and snowy conditions, HSI staff, in partnership with service providers, the KCRHA, volunteers, and City departments, provided a total of 2,116 overnight stays across six emergency shelters for people experiencing homelessness.

Promoting Healthy Aging:

  1. 2,351 people were reached via 22 Age Friendly Seattle virtual events in 2021 as the program continued to support learning and social connection through online programing including Civic Coffee Hours, Close to Home programs, an African American Elders’ Candidates Forum, Memory Sunday Brain Health & Dementia Awareness, and more.

Supporting Safe Communities:

Seattle Great Wheel lit up in purple at night
  1. Work continued in 2021 to stand up our new Safe and Thriving Communities (STC) Division. We hired STC’s first Division Director and acquired two SPD services: Crime Victim Advocates and Victim Support Team. And the Mayor’s Office on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (MODVSA) continued its work after moving into the division.
  2. STC staff conducted several funding processes to invest in community, including:
    • $500,000 in Regional Peacekeepers Collective
    • $600,000 to mitigate increasing gender-based violence during the pandemic

As we look ahead, please join us in celebrating these tremendous contributions and looking forward to what we will achieve together in 2022!

Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP) Now Accepting Applications for 2021 Internships

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SYEP logo featuring the Seattle skyline

HSD staff are excited to let you know that the Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP) is continuing to prepare for job readiness trainings and employment opportunities this summer despite the uncertainty that COVID brings.

Applications for SYEP 2021 internships are now open, and will close on Friday, April 2, 2021. We anticipate the program will be six weeks, running July 7 through August 17, 2021. Depending on the public health guidelines, the summer program will either follow a “learn and earn” model (where we recruit employer partners to provide short virtual training sessions), an “in-person internship” if possible, a “virtual Internship” where participants work remotely, or a “hybrid” model that combines all of these.

SYEP supports young people (ages 16 to 24) from qualifying-income households and communities that experience racial, social, and economic disparities. The goal is to increase youth and young adults’ ability to pursue careers that pay well and are meaningful to them.

SYEP now offers three components for youth and young adults: a stipend-based school year exploration and learning experience, summer internships with local nonprofits and Seattle city departments, and private internship opportunities for Seattle Promise students.

Want to apply? Visit our program website at www.seattle.gov/syep today!

Scenes of interns at Port of Seattle in 2017

What a Year! Thank you.

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*UDP Enrollment numbers were updated after publication.

As 2020 comes to a close, I hope you and your loved ones are healthy and as well as one can be in what has surely been one of the more challenging years we have faced as a department. Back in January, we already knew that “change” would be a theme this year.

One of the city’s top priorities for the year was to help stand-up and launch the new King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA). For HSD, this included transitioning our Homeless Strategy and Investment division staff and contracts to a co-location space with their County peers and development of a staffing plan.

While that work has been underway all year, little did we know at the start of 2020 that a global pandemic like nothing seen in at least a century was already underway. Not only did that slow the progress of this work, it lead to most employees shifting to work from home, being reassigned, and changing work plans. Plus significant impacts to our economy and unimaginable changes to how each of us conduct our daily lives.

With homelessness response transitioning to the KCRHA, our department planned to spend much of the year redefining how it exists within the human services space. HSD planned to work with staff, service providers, and clients to co-create a roadmap for the future. This work launched in February with an understanding that race and social justice should underpin everything that we were going to talk about. The public health crisis forced us to pause that work almost immediately. Little did we know the paradigm shift coming in the summer as the support for Black Lives Matter took on new meaning for our general society and millions more people “awoke” to the understanding that it’s time to rethink how we spend our tax dollars and how our governments respond to the needs of the community.

Human Services Department (HSD) staff and our community partners have been a part of the front-line response to COVID-19, pivoting programs and rising to the many challenges to help those most in need. I am deeply proud of the work we have accomplished together during this crisis. Our mission to connect people with resources and solutions during times of need so we can all live, learn, work, and take part in strong, healthy communities took on a much greater sense of urgency in 2020, even as we managed our ongoing work.

COVID-19:

Image of the Food Resources Map
  1. In March, HSD’s Data, Performance, and Evaluation (DPE) team built an interactive map of food bank and meal programs operating in Seattle and King County. It is available to the public and provides up-to-date details for these resources. To date, the site has over 34,000 views and is updated on a regular schedule.
  2. HSD successfully redeployed approximately 130 employees throughout the department to fulfill mission priority work related to food distribution, set-up of emergency shelters in City-owned buildings, and shelter staffing support including overnight shifts. Staff also provisioned over $600,000 in PPE, sanitation supplies, and to-go food distribution supplies for emergency feeding providers.
  3. HSD helped our community partners respond to the pandemic by supporting multiple capital projects: including construction of three new childcare facilities to support families with low-incomes, relocation of the ROOTS youth shelter during the COVID-19 pandemic, and supporting relocation and expansion of the Ballard Food Bank facility.
  4. Our staff oversaw the implementation of two rounds of CDBG and ESG CARES Act emergency funding, working across six departments and the Mayor’s office to maximize impact, and managed 10 new COVID response funding sources totaling almost $50M of increased budget to aid in the City’s pandemic response.
  5. Over $8M in state and federal funds was awarded to providers for COVID response to BIPOC communities, free and reduced lunch students, people experiencing homelessness, and more, working with partners like the National Guard and the United Way of King County.

Preparing Youth for Success:

  1. A new public awareness campaign was launched in partnership with The Vida Agency – “Be Ready. Be Hydrated. / Prepárate. Hidrátate.” – which promoted healthy choices to counter sugary beverage marketing tactics aimed at youth of color. It was funded by the Seattle Sweetened Beverage Tax. 
  2. Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP) developed a Summer Virtual Job Readiness Program pilot for over 200 youth in collaboration with Seattle Parks and Recreation and Seattle Police Department. The workshops included teambuilding, time management, problem solving, growth mindset, resumé and cover letter writing, interviewing, and certifications in First Aid/CPR and Food Handling. Participants earned a stipend of up to $599.

Supporting Affordability and Livability:

  1. 11,137 households were enrolled in the Utility Discount Program (UDP) through the COVID-19 online self-certification form through 1/03/21. The total number of households benefiting from UDP now exceeds over 40,000.

Promoting Public Health:

  1. The nationally-recognized Mobile Integrated Health Program partnership increased the service area for Health One and now allows any Seattle Fire unit to make a referral. 

Addressing Homelessness:

Nav Team members prepare hygiene kits
  1. HSD provided additional funds to our homeless service providers through an emergency funding process to support unanticipated costs due to COVID-19. We funded shelter programs, day/hygiene centers, and Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) sites. These funds allowed for program modification and physical layout of program spaces to be COVID-compliant. 
  2. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in early March through September, HSD’s Navigation Team engaged over 2,300 individuals experiencing homelessness, made over 670 site visits for outreach, conducted over 1,650 encampment litter/debris pickups, and made over 610 shelter referrals. 
  3. The Navigation Team had over 5,400 conversations about COVID-19 with people experiencing homelessness, provided over 2,600 hygiene kits, distributed over 2,300 COVID-19 and Hepatitis A related public health fliers, and handed out over 1,100 boxed meals. 
  4. Over five days of outreach in September during the wildfire smoke emergency, Navigation Team System Navigators conducted 217 needs assessments, distributed 219 emergency shelter flyers, provided 178 basic needs items, made 32 referrals into the emergency smoke shelter and 30 referrals into other City-funded shelter programs. 

KCRHA:

  1. Three governance committees for the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) have been formed: Governing Committee (GC); Implementation Board (IB), and; Continuum of Care (CoC) Board. This included hiring Lived Experience (LE) Coalition staff, Johnathan Hemphill, to support the LE representatives at all levels of the governance structure. Joint meetings/trainings were also conducted focusing on racial justice.
  2. The new regional homelessness authority also established operational functions to support KCRHA employees and business operations (e.g. retirement, accounting and payroll services, insurance, and health benefits) and initiated recruitment for a CEO, including a final job description announcement and recruitment packet.

Promoting Healthy Aging:

Virtual Events logo
  1. Early on in 2020, HSD was tasked with creating an action plan to manage the impacts of the pandemic on the vulnerable communities we work with. Aging and Disability Services division staff increased nutrition services by expanding delivery and mobile options to meet growth due to COVID and provided new guidelines and other support for our community provider network. Staff also pivoted in-home supports, offering online and telephonic services that helped keep over 12,000 community long-term care clients safe.
  2. Staff also supported social and civic engagement by moving Age Friendly Seattle programs online, creating a weekly virtual event series, coordinating a variety of other special events, and establishing an Aging King County YouTube channel featuring event recordings with closed captioning.

Supporting Safe Communities:

Young woman dressed in purple with a purple witch's hat on her head
  1. As part of our Domestic Violence Awareness Month social media campaign, and to take advantage of a rare fifth #PurpleThursday in October, our staff and friends decided to join with some other DV awareness programs around the country in also promoting a Purple Pumpkin decorating challenge. Here are some of the results.
  2. As Mayor Jenny A. Durkan said recently, this year also brought “a civil rights reckoning that demanded our city address systemic injustices in policing, housing, health care, and education.” Because of changes to how our City addresses Public Safety, the Mayor’s Office on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (MODVSA) recently welcomed 13 colleagues from the Seattle Police Department to be part of the Crime Survivor Services Unit.

    The Crime Survivor Services Unit’s focus is victim advocacy, providing immediate support to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, elder abuse, child abuse, violent crimes, and homicides. In addition, MODVSA also welcomed five new MSW Interns who are working with the MODVSA Manager on investment, program, and policy research.
  3. This new unit within the MODVSA, as well as the Office itself, will be part of something new in 2021, as HSD staff work through feedback gathered at the community forum series we recently held to help stand up its new Safe and Thriving Communities Division. This new division will respond to community requests for the City of Seattle to shift funding away from traditional police response and reinvest in community building efforts using nearly $22 million in annual investments.

As we look to 2021, we know that much of the public health response will continue for some time. We also know the challenging work we planned for this year will need to resume in the months to come.

Please join me in celebrating these tremendous contributions toward our department results. Thank you for continuing to rise to the challenge of making a positive difference in people’s lives!

Your Partner,

Jason Johnson,
Acting Director

Seattle Youth Employment Program Wraps an Unusual Summer

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*A shortened version of this article previously appeared in the October edition of HSD’s monthly Lifelines newsletter. Click here to subscribe now.

When the Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP) launched its new academic year program model last year, certainly no one could have predicted that a worldwide pandemic would impact the best laid plans of staff members.

Beginning last October, participants attended weekly sessions and career discovery days, and participated in team activities, skills workshops, one-on-one coaching and support services, and assessments. Youth participants could earn a maximum stipend of $300 per quarter; and those who completed the series were eligible for a 150-hour internship paying $16 per hour in the summer of 2020.

Then COVID-19 came along. SYEP had to quickly adapt to a world where academic learning happens online and students and workers train and interact with each other virtually—utilizing laptops, cell phones, and Microsoft Teams and other social software apps.

Image of Betty

Betty Gebrejawaria was in the school year program. She learned job readiness skills like writing a resume and cover letter and how to prepare for an interview. “As a high school student, I found this really helpful because these are the years where I start to join the job field and SYEP helped me land my first internship,” she shared.

She was chosen as an intern with SYEP, helping to run the annual summer program, which operated as a virtual classroom for participants. She helped provide program support like taking attendance during the job trainings and setting up and running the virtual sessions. “The virtual environment was very new for many people like myself,” said Betty. “Although we encountered many technical issues, everyone was really patient, very kind, and helpful. And everyone’s optimistic attitude really impacted how smooth the program went. I wouldn’t change a thing. It was all last minute, but the program was successful.”

“Participating in the virtual SYEP program over the summer was exciting,” agreed SYEP participant Kidus Solomon. “The staff put together very informative and well-designed presentations that helped me stay engaged and interested on the topics. It’s just a well-designed program to help you succeed.”

Among the many positive impacts on his life so far, Kidus says SYEP helped him create his first resume, which he then used to apply for a job in the middle of the pandemic.

For SYEP intern Calvin Fung, one of the positive impacts this summer was that the job helped him to establish a schedule and have a reason to wake up and feel valuable. “You know, usually you are getting paid for contributing, helping out, providing your insight. And how a young person thinks.” He thinks it is really important that youth serve as interns along with the adult mentors to program participants. He believes they have a special effect, because there’s a difference between “an adult speaking to you, as compared to a young person speaking to another young person.”

Meeting regularly with both assigned counselors and peers helped Gheeda Hamam keep a check on her hours and her progress with the program. Counselors were very helpful with providing resources and assistance. They were also great at being responsive to her emails and helped her stay on track with accessing links and using chat.

She feels that “SYEP has taught me to learn soft skills such as time management, conflict resolution, team building, and communication. And it also taught me skills like resume building and creating the accounts for LinkedIn and NeoGov.” (NeoGov is the online job application platform used by the City of Seattle and several other government and public agencies in the area for their hiring processes.)

Leland Adams is also a previous SYEP participant who landed a summer internship helping to support the program, which he said “taught me a bunch about virtual platforms, which I’m very grateful for because moving forward in I think a lot of people’s careers, and education as well, we will be using those virtual platforms.”

In the virtual SYEP setting, the interns had to become comfortable communicating with managers and peers, as well as with the summer students. The students needed to understand what was expected of them online in the virtual session instead of an office internship and what SYEP expected for them to get out of the program. “And so, just working through and communicating a lot because this was the pilot program to everything that we were doing,” said Leland. “We were pretty much setting the foundation for everything that this program was going to be, and everything that it could become in the future.”

When asked what some of the positives and the negatives were about not being able to be in person with participants, Leland really saw the positives. “I feel like I gained a new skill set, right? Being able to work from home. Because I think that’s something in the future that we’re going to be seeing a lot of, and just being able to work on projects online …. Not everybody is going to be able to access the office in the future.”

Gheeda nodded as he was speaking, and added that “being able to finish a project online is a really good skill because you have to be independent and kind of just go off from the instructions that were given online.” That’s not something that’s easy to do, but she believes it will also be an increasingly important ability in the future, where assistance isn’t just on the other side of a cubicle wall or elsewhere in a physical office.

I feel like I gained a new skill set, right? Being able to work from home. Because I think that’s something in the future that we’re going to be seeing a lot of, and just being able to work on projects online …. Not everybody is going to be able to access the office in the future.

Leland Adams, SYEP Summer Intern

For many office workers prior to this global pandemic, while resume writing and interviewing skills were important to learn as they started out, it was equally as important to focus on dressing for an office environment, planning a commute, and showing up on time. Our current state may be, unexpectedly, really preparing these youth for a future where they may be on a team with people who are in Seattle, Europe, India, and Australia and all coming in at different times, and working on projects together, and leaving things in the chat box for someone to pick up when they start their day. Many of the tech jobs in our area already look like this. So there are lots of skills that SYEP is having to build into the program now, but that are actually going to be much more valuable as the workplace continues to change.

When asked about how SYEP has had a positive impact on his life, Leland said it’s really helped him to grow his networks while being a student at the University of Washington. It’s helped him to feel more confident, and “hopefully that opens some doors for me in the future.”

SYEP staff are happy to report that his hopes may have been realized, as Leland recently accepted another internship position with the King County Department of Human Resources, where he will support the development of a new job readiness program. This program seeks to establish pathways of employment for young men of color, specifically black men in high school and college.

Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP) Now Accepting Applications for 2020 Summer Internships

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SYEP logo

The Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP) helps young people (ages 16 to 24) from low-income households and communities that experience racial, social, and economic disparities. The goal is to increase youth and young adults’ ability to pursue careers that pay well and are meaningful to them.

SYEP has two components: a school-year exploration and learning experience, and a summer internship. The summer internship places young people in work settings to apply their knowledge, gain hands-on experience, develop professional connections, and build their resume. In 2020, SYEP summer interns will be paid $16.39 for up to 150 hours of work over six weeks.

Two young women wearing nurse uniforms in a hospital room

Specific supports are provided to young people to ensure they are set-up for success, including:

  • An ORCA card to cover transportation to and from the program (if they don’t already have one issued through their school)
  • All fees for tests and/or certifications required by internship sites, such as food handler permits or first aid/CPR
  • Internship-related work clothes or safety equipment, such as hard hats and/or work boots
  • Ongoing support from their Youth Development Counselor for general coaching
Young woman seated in front of a large widescreen monitor and typing on a keyboard

To be eligible for SYEP, young people must be between the ages of 16 and 24 years old, live within the Seattle city limits, and live in a household with income at or below 80% Area Median Income (AMI). Applications for summer 2020 internships are now open, and will close on Tuesday, March 17, 2020 at midnight Pacific Standard Time (PST).

Want to apply? Visit our program website at www.seattle.gov/syep today!

City announces Year-Round Youth Employment Program

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SYEP Logo graphic

SEATTLE (August 15, 2019) – The Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP), sponsored by the Seattle Human Services Department, announces the launch of a new year-round pre-employment program to support 200 youth and young adults in growing as community leaders and preparing for future work and career opportunities. This is an expansion to the current summer-only SYEP internship program. The new model will provide job-readiness skills, career navigation, exploration, and skill building through job readiness workshops, employer site visits, and professional networking opportunities. The skills and knowledge gained in the year-round program, along with SYEP support services, will prepare participants for success in their summer internships.

The year-round model will run from October 2019 to August 2020. Beginning in October, participants will attend weekly sessions and career discovery days, and participate in team activities, skills workshops, one-on-one coaching and support services, and assessments. Participants will earn a maximum stipend of $300 per module. Those who complete the series will have a guaranteed 150-hour internship that pays $16 per hour in the summer of 2020.

The change comes as part of the Mayor’s response to better meet the needs of youth and young adults within the regional economy, especially low-income youth who often lack access to meaningful career connections and opportunities in their teen years. The goal of the expanded program is to prepare youth for entry-level jobs in Seattle and increase their ability to pursue careers that are meaningful and pay a livable wage.

SYEP will be accepting applications for the year-round program from August 15‒September 9, 2019. (**UPDATE 9/6: The application deadline has been extended to Midnight on Monday, September 16) To be eligible, applicants must meet the minimum eligibility criteria: 

  • Commit to a year-round program with weekday and some weekend activities;
  • Live within Seattle city limits;
  • Be between the ages of 16‒24 years old by start of program; and have
  • Household income at or below 80% of the 2019 HUD median income for Seattle/King County.

For more information, guidelines, and the application, please visit www.seattle.gov/syep.

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Youth can connect with employers, educators at resource fair

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Young people ages 15 to 22 are invited to attend the annual Youth Employment, Education and Career Fair on Feb. 19th, 1-4 p.m. at Goodwill Seattle, 700 Dearborn Pl. S, Seattle 98144. Sponsored by Human Services Department’s Seattle Youth Employment Program in partnership with King County, WorkSource Seattle-King County and Seattle Goodwill, the fair features, employers, college representatives and other community resources.

Youth Education, Career, & Resource Fair on Feb. 15

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The 2013 Youth Education, Career and Resource Fair will be held on Feb. 15, 2013 at the Rainier Community Center, 4600 38th Ave. S, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Sponsored by the Seattle Youth Employment Consortium members, the Human Services Department’s Seattle Youth Employment Program, SeaMar Community Health Centers, MetroCenter YMCA, and YouthCare, the fair will feature 60+ vendors and workshops that focus on resume writing, interviewing, and applying for schools and employment.

For more information contact the SYEP office at 684-0293 or tina.inay@seattle.gov.

 

Bank of America Foundation helps youth jobs program

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The Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP), a program of the Seattle Human Services Department, provides economically disadvantaged youth the opportunity to develop employment skills, explore careers, and meet individualized educational goals. This summer, SYEP received a generous $50,000 grant from the Bank of America Foundation to serve an additional 16 youth.  In this seven-week program, youth were placed at various high-growth sectors such as health care, trade/transportation and information technology, and involved private businesses, nonprofit organizations and government agencies. Site supervisors and SYEP employment counselors partnered throughout the summer to expose youth to green job and post-secondary options; develop work-readiness skills needed to increase employability; move youth onto well-paying careers; and move youth towards economic self-sufficiency.