Program creates highway to opportunity

The Highway-to-Work Program provides Alameda County youth ages 14 to 17 on probation, in foster care or on CalWorks – a program that provides financial assistance to individuals with dependent children – with life-skills workshops, employment and education support, educational stipends and 200-hour paid internships at local job sites, including California State University, East Bay.

Several of the departments within Facilities and the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics Department, work with East Bay Community Services, a division of the local non-profit organization La Familia Counseling Services, to provide these opportunities for teens like Julio and Jemma.

Because of the program, Jemma, 18, is going to be the first in her family to go to college and helped her mom buy a house. Julio, 17, is getting off probation early and is planning on becoming an Emergency Medical Technician.

Both teens said in addition to providing them with the basic life skills that were missing from traditional schooling, such as how to make a resume and maintain their finances, the program also got them jobs.

One of the most important aspects of the program is the unofficial mentoring the youth receive from their coworkers.

“They give me a lot of advice, advice they’d give to their daughters,” Jemma said. “I really respect them and I’m really grateful for them.”

Manny Ochoa, supervisor for the Grounds Department, works with the teens on a day-to-day basis and said everyone works together to guide the teens, who often are shy and come from disadvantaged homes where one or both parents is absent.

“I try to tell them what it takes to keep a job, what an employer expects,” Ochoa said. “Just basic stuff to survive in the workforce.”

Davida Scott, 23, youth employment specialist with La Familia, is at the center of it all, doing everything from establishing relationships with potential employers for the teens to visiting their work sites and making sure they go to school.

Scott said she receives $300 per youth for each year that she puts towards their work uniforms and monthly bus passes.

“It’s not me doing the work, it’s my students doing the work,” Scott said. “I’m just documenting it and showing proof.”

But Scott does more than that, texting her students in the mornings to see how they are doing, making sure they go to school and setting up tours for them to see local colleges, such as CSUEB.

“I hear them talk about her,” Ochoa said. “They know she cares.”

David Miller, facilities manager, helped Scott establish the program in the Grounds Department three years ago and has been defending it and helping it grow ever since.

Christopher Nakamura, facilities manager, said he thought it was a really good program and decided to expand the program to 15 students in December 2012.

“It’s a worthwhile cause,” Nakamura said. “It’s about turning kids lives around.”

One of the most important aspects of the program is that the majority of students involved have not been committing new crimes.

“I’ve had over 30 youth dismissed from probation in the last two years,” Scott said, “and these are kids that have been on probation since they were 10 or 11.”

Scott said there are a lot of gangs in Hayward and it’s easy to fall into one “if you’re not getting what you need at home.”

“That’s why a lot of kids join gangs,” Scott said. “You know to feel wanted, to feel protected, to feel that someone is going to be there for you.”

After Julio’s best friend was shot and killed, he decided he had to turn his life around and decided to contact Scott.

“Without the program, I’d be in jail or on the streets still,” Julio said.

Scott said that not everyone is going to change, but the overwhelming majority of her students thrive when given the opportunity to succeed even if there are large obstacles in the way.

Julio was afraid the stigma associated with his probation would prevent him from getting a job, a fear that is all too real for many teens labeled delinquents.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Leopoldo Dorado, who deals with minors charged with criminal offenses, said when Scott approached him and said she had a fully-funded program that would help employ the youth, it was “a real godsend.”

“One of the critical concerns that we have about our minors is … their ability to be successful on probation, which very often involves payment of restitution,” Dorado said. “Usually these individuals come from low-income families, so they have difficulty paying the restitution.”

Dorado said the program has not only increased the chances of these teens getting off probation, but has also reduced the risk of their returning to crime.

“This is a really important building block that helps them not only stay crime free, but also allows them to be successful in the future,” Dorado said.

More importantly, Dorado said when these kids are asked what they plan on doing with their futures or who their role models are, “they normally say I have no idea.”

The Highway-to-Work Program strives to open doors for these teens and show them life can be different.