Youth Trades

To make a difference in the lives of marginalized youth

Objective

To create meaningful economic change in the lives of Black youth through purposeful career development in the trades industry.

Program Goals

Our goals with the Youth Trades Program are:

To Provide youth under the age of 16 a glance into the world of tradesmanship in order to better facilitate future career trajectory and education.
To provide 25 black youth (ages 16-29) with educaton into the world of tradesmanship as well as an entry into employment into the trades.
To help employers hire Black youth apprentices by supplementing up to $10,000 of their salary and training cost for the first 1000 hours of their apprenticeship.
To support and mentor Black youth through their training by connecting them with other Black tradespeople.
To teach Black youth about their worker’s rights within a unionized settings.
Educate youth about the importance of financial literacy and how to manage their finances moving forward.
Provide construction management tutorials for existing contractor and subcontractor partners to better prepare them for their business growth.

Background On The Issue

We understand trades are not the solution to all unemployment ailments within the community but we understand the black community is significantly underrepresented in the skilled trades community which has contributed to the delay within the race to financial independence.

Program Description

The Youth Trades Program will start by supplementing the salary of 25 Black youth within the construction trades sector through utilization of Keep6ix’s partnerships with existing construction companies to create a mutually beneficial relationships. The purpose of supplementing part of the youth’s income is to encourage employers to sponsor and train Black youth as apprentices in a field where they are underrepresented. By sponsoring an apprentice, it allows the apprentice to obtain membership into their respective union ultimately creating an opportunity for continued growth once the young person transitions through Keep6ix’s Youth Trades Program.

Youth will be supported and mentored by members of the Keep6ix team, who are also expert trades people and part of the Black community. The youth apprentices will participate in a workshop that teaches them their rights, along with the skills needed to advocate for themselves if any issues should arise. Keep6ix will maintain a direct line of communication with each employer and as such have a periodic review and assessment of both the employer and candidate being sponsored to allow for continued improvement and monitoring. Keep6ix will also provide informal support in the form of mentorship to all participates in the Youth Trades Program

Program Evaluation

Our evaluation process will measure both the youth participant’s capacity prior, during and post program at set intervals. Also, there will need to be a continued assessment of the employment partners’ role and performance over the life span of the program. Measuring things like number of participants that have joined and completed the program, the skills they have learned throughout their apprenticeship, and participants’ perception of success within the program.

Participants will also be asked to attend an exit interview with Keep6ix staff to provide us with more details about their experience in the trades and their relationship with Keep6ix.

Employers will also be asked to provide feedback on the process of hiring an apprentice through Keep6ix and what we can do to improve our partnerships and services with them.

After completion of the Youth Trades program Keep6ix plans to continue to keep in contact with youth post program completion to ensure overall program proven success and provide as much wrap around service as possible.