Instructions: Create an original post and describe the major groups of people with whom you work and the backgrounds from which they originate. Identify the key resources that you use with this group. Then respond to one classmate’s post. You will make a total of two posts.
Remember that our learning group works in a full-value environment: We treat our colleagues with respect and professionalism. Our comments should reflect this culture.
My office has a few different programs that we have and each of them serve different populations. With our youth apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs, we are focused on high school aged students that reside in Rural Montana. For our youth apprenticeships, we are currently working in one of the tribal communities in Montana and for our pre-apprenticeships, we are working with two charter schools, down in the Bitterroot Valley. For these two programs, I mainly work with Generation Z individuals. We also have our registered apprentice programs where I find myself working with more adult learners who are looking to expand their skills and advance in their career. Again, this is mainly individuals who reside in rural communities that have limited access to postsecondary and continuing education opportunities. With our registered apprenticeship programs, I would the generations I work with include Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z. A lot of my communication methods with these individuals includes both emails, phone calls, or Microsoft Teams meetings. However, when I am interacting with the Generation Z population, I have found that they do not typically respond to emails, so I have had to change my communication methods to texting them instead because they are quicker to respond and more likely to see that I messaged them.
The biggest resource that I use when working with these different groups and programs is my interpersonal skills. Because I do this work remotely, I spend a lot of time meeting with the different individuals who are interested in these programs and opportunities to explain the benefits that they can offer. Apprenticeships and career pathways are a bit if a new concept in Montana, especially for the healthcare field, so being able to meet with the students and adult learners interested in these programs has proven to be very beneficial for them. Engaging with multiple community partners is also a key resource that we use working with these individuals as well. Since I do not directly interact with these individuals until they have decided they are ready to start one of these programs, it is really important for me to work with school career counselors and advisors that work on getting students and individuals set up with the right program.
I have found it difficult to encourage Generation Z participants to utilize or check their email as well! It is difficult because we want to set them up for success in the professional setting where they will likely be utilizing email and will be responsible for checking it regularly. We have even had some of this miss job opportunities because they missed the email offering them an interview.
We are hybrid here and have to use interpersonal skills by holding meeting through Teams, text, messages, and we attend court via Zoom. I have never worked with a rural population and wish you the best of luck with your new growing program!
I do agree with you regarding the communication. It is one of the most challenges that we face while working with any population thar we serve despite their education level or even their age.
Last month we hosted a job fair, 43 employers and about 650 job seekers attended. After we done, I sent a survey for all of them. The responses that I have got are from 17 employers and 12 job seekers.
However, changing the ways of communication is a good point to consider all the time.
Our program serves 18-32 people who are residents of Cook County in Chicago that have been charged with their first felony level drug charge that includes the intent to distribute. We additionally have begun to serve individuals with their first UUW charge. Our participants primarily live in the South and West side of Chicago who are unemployed and typically are in neighborhoods with high rates of gang violence. There are primarily Black and Latine men, but there is also a small number of women and other ethnicities who get referred to our program. A lot of the participants have children, some have long-term partners, but most of the participants with children have strained relationships with the other parent. Quite of a few of them do not have a GED or high school diploma and I would say generally they are between a 3rd-8th grade reading level. Most of them are straight and gender-conforming, but there have been a few participants that have disclosed their LGBTQIA+ identity. Many of them have previous misdemeanors on their record and were heavily involved in the juvenile justice systems. They are heavily systems impacted and live in neighborhoods where their communities are heavily policed and they experience losses from gun violence commonly. It is interesting because the majority of our staff is women and so we often have balance perceptions of us based on their previous experience with other women authority figures in their lives. I am personally non-binary and have openly shared that with participants and have had generally neutral or positive responses, sometime my self disclosure also opens up deeper conversations about identity, marginalization, and their own experiences in the work place.
The resources we utilize are bus and gas cards to make sure they have transportation to program. We develop safety plans for those who may be gang affiliated and have safety issues riding public transportation or being in certain parts of the city. We also have client support funds to help them with basic needs such as clothing for an interview, housing, clothing for work, etc. The program also provides them with access to free counseling in the office with the clinical case manager and we utilize collaboration by working with a community based organization collective that connects our participants to different job leads and resources across the city. We also form relationships with employers through collaboration to make sure we are doing our best to send participants to opportunities where they will at least be considered even with something on their background.
For the last 13 years, I have been working with different groups in Sacramento, CA society that can consider as a multiculture environment. Those groups can be immigrants and refugees, low-income people, ethnically diverse and from a different generations.
For immigrants and refugees, this population are newcomers, most of them came from the Middle East Asia carrying similar religious culture and traditions. Also, you can consider them as a low-income people in addition to the people who are already living in the country with limited income resources. Different types of resources were offered like, interpretation and translation, housing, Welfare that included cash and food benefits, transportation, immigration services, legal resources, disability benefits, employment services, financial literacy, and adult education.
The ethnically diverse group where people from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds present within the community and seeking for services. Resources provided for this group included employment services including P2E (Prison 2 Employment) program, housing assistance, legal services like expungement clinics, Welfare benefits, transportation, access to food sources, financial literacy, and training programs.
Key resources provided to the school age customers included trade programs for high schoolers, college readiness programs, career advancement programs, and cultural orientation and competency.
I do agree with you regarding the communication. It is one of the most challenges that we face while working with any population thar we serve despite their education level or even their age.
Last month we hosted a job fair, 43 employers and about 650 job seekers attended. After we done, I sent a survey for all of them. The responses that I have got are from 17 employers and 12 job seekers.
However, changing the ways of communication is a good point to consider all the time.