How can we build better partnerships among business, social services, and youth?

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Background

New Avenues for Youth is a Portland nonprofit that offers an array of services for young people experiencing homelessness. The agency’s workforce development team helps youth get job training and find employment. The workforce program also build partnerships with local employers, which make it easier for youth to get hired. For example, partner employers may volunteer to help youth fill out job applications, or guarantee that youth who apply for a job at their company will get an interview. This helps break down some of the many barriers that homeless youth face when looking for a job.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic had a dire effect on New Avenues’ workforce development programs. Entry-level job openings dried up overnight. Many youth lost their jobs. And New Avenues’ in-house job training programs had to close down.

As a participant in the Social Impact Lab, a six-week design marathon, I worked with a team of three other volunteers to find innovative ways to remove barriers to employment for New Avenues’ clients during COVID-19 and beyond.

Challenge

Most of New Avenues’ employer partnerships were in the food service, retail, and hospitality industries, which were hit hard by the COVID-19 lockdown.  In the beginning my team thought our challenge was to help develop new partnerships in industries that were still hiring. But our user interviews uncovered deeper challenges. 

In talking with at-risk youth and New Avenues’ career coaches, we learned that before COVID-19, youth could obtain an entry-level job with relative ease. Business was booming, and employers were hungry for workers. 

The real challenge for youth wasn’t getting a job, but keeping it. New Avenues’ clients often struggle to stay in a job for more than two months. Homeless youth have suffered a variety of traumas, and have a deep need for physical and emotional safety. In addition, youth must navigate complex logistical issues around basic needs like transportation, food, shelter, and family, which can cause them to miss work. When they do, they often feel intense shame, so they just don’t go back to their job.  

These fundamental issues would continue to challenge youth and employers through the lockdown period and beyond. So our team broadened the problem statement: How might we create a sustainable and resilient employer partnership program that helps youth thrive at work? 

What I Did

My team took a deep dive into research on the challenges and stigma around homelessness and employment, as well as trauma-informed services for at-risk youth. Then we conducted interviews with New Avenues career coaches, program staff, and at-risk youth. 

We used affinity mapping, journey mapping, and a service design blueprint to clarify the current process and identify concrete steps the agency could use to strengthen relationships with their employer partners.  

The role of the manager

Our research revealed that a key piece of the puzzle was missing. On the employer side, the person who sets up the partnership and is committed to working with the youth is usually an executive. But the people who work directly with the youth are managers, who may be unfamiliar with the New Avenues partnership and might not even know that the person they’re supervising is homeless. Managers don’t necessarily recognize the value these youth bring to the workplace, understand the challenges they face, or have training and tools to help them succeed. 

Clarifying Value

How do employers benefit from hiring homeless youth? I created a value map to clarify how partnerships benefit New Avenues, youth, and employers.

When treated well, homeless youth are extremely loyal to their employers. They bring a wealth of lived experience as well as racial and gender diversity. Increasing diversity is a stated goal of many companies. It is good for the world and also will ultimately make the business  more profitable. 

A healthier workplace for everyone

Homeless youth want jobs that pay a living wage, are easy to get to, and that offer flexible scheduling and empathetic managers. These qualities appeal to other employees as well. By investing in New Avenues youth, employers can create workplaces that are more humane, inclusive, and productive for everyone. 

Result

Our insights about the value that homeless youth bring to employers highlighted the need to help New Avenues’ partners better understand the value and needs of youth employees.

We recommend new communications strategies, outreach techniques, and solutions: videos and documents explaining the value and structure of employer partnerships; specific training for managers and new-employer onboarding kits; and a system for coaches to help mediate workplace difficulties.

With these new measures in place, employers will better understand trauma-informed care and engage more successfully with the unique needs of New Avenues youth.