Agencies give youth focus on career planning

Government, schools and other organizations work together to equip youth with the incentive and skills they need to be productive citizens, according to Blair Campmier, team outreach coordinator with the Boys and Girls Club of Springfield.

The Boys and Girls Club serves area youngsters at three locations: the Bill Henderson facility at 1300 N. Boonville, the Musgrave unit at 720 S. Park and the Genevieve Kynion facility at 1381 E. Division.

The organization provides youth access to computers and the Internet to help them learn the systems. At the Musgrave facility, Vance Salmon offers a weekly session, "College 101," to ready young people for college.

Funded through private donations, the Boys and Girls Club of Springfield also participates in the Junior Achievement Program to assist disadvantaged kids with college expenses. In February of each year the winner of the club's Youth of the Year honor receives a $6,000 scholarship and an opportunity to go on to statewide competition for even more money, according to Campmier.

The clubs often refer youngsters to government agencies or elsewhere for special help in goal-setting and job readiness.

The Missouri Career Center serves youth in a seven-county area in conjunction with a number of agencies, according to Curt Lewis, youth development specialist with Ozark Area Community Action Corporation, one of the partner agencies.

OACAC offers young people a variety of programs to help them acquire occupational skills and get them into training programs, both on the job and in formal classroom settings, according to Chuck Matthews, OACAC youth services director. The center runs a week-long work readiness program for teens every other week as long as there are enough people to warrant scheduling the sessions, he said.

The Missouri Career Center will soon be expanding to 35,000 square feet of space, which it will share with partner agencies including the State Division of Work Force Development, Division of Family Services and Missouri Vocational Rehabilitation.

OACAC helps young people with interpersonal relationships, job searches, interviews, goal-setting, problem-solving and work ethic principles, according to Matthews.

It also works with nonprofit and for-profit employers to provide area youngsters summer jobs and year-round, temporary jobs, to allow them to gain experience in a given field. The aim is to build a work history and, in some cases, to move them to permanent status with the company where they have been placed.

"There are 10 different services we can implement," Matthews said. "Among them, we can provide mentoring, tutoring, dropout prevention, work experience and work readiness."

Representatives from OACAC go to middle schools and high schools to present programs and answer questions. They also advertise through radio, television, fliers and posters and through other agencies with which they partner.

"The kids are out there, but we have to get to them," Matthews said.

Ozarks Technical Community College works closely with local agencies to serve disadvantaged youth and help them with job placement and career development, said Schrene Davis, OTC mentoring coordinator.

Her department works with government agencies, community action groups and concerned parents to help direct young people into productive careers and lives, she said.

Due to limited funds, the program seeks certain those with special needs who may have learning or physical disabilities. The OTC Vocational Evaluation Assessment Center can assess academic and coordination skill levels for these individuals and match them to a type of job that fits their level of ability.

If the youths have not graduated from high school, OTC can connect them with the GED Center on North Town Mall, where they can enter the free program to study for the test.

"The only cost is the state application and the test, for which they must go to SMSU," Davis said. "The total cost is $27."

OTC has some funds to help with tools needed for a specific trade and in some instances can even help with child care arrangements for teen parents.

Funding for some projects has become harder to obtain due to recent trims in the state budget. "Our program, one of 11 in Missouri, experienced a 65 percent cut for the fiscal year July 2001 to July 2002," Davis said. She added that the department's staff of three has been cut to two.

"Initially the budget was meant to serve eight counties," she said. "We've had to pull back and serve only Greene County."