“Around here, there really aren’t a whole lot of opportunities for jobs, especially of this nature. It’s not an opportunity that kids around here get all the time,” he said.
Beckett, of La Honda, is referring to his new part-time job assisting with the array of social services inside Puente de la Costa Sur in Pescadero. Along with 28 other young people, Beckett is being offered a chance to explore the various avenues of the non-profit sector this season. That’s because program coordinators at Puente are pushing to retain a host of summer youth employees during the school year.
 Hector Lopez and Laura Rodriguez design business cards in the computer lab after school on Monday. The pair are part of a Puente de la Costa Sur student work program that has been extended into the fall. |
Of the 34 young adults who helped run summer programs for children, 29 of them are remaining on board going into fall, and maybe beyond. Enthusiasm for the program has never been an issue. Paying for it is, however.
“The official close date for the summer youth employment grants is Sept. 30. So, for the moment, the three sources of funding that allowed us to do the 34 summer workers are in place,” Lobel said. “My hope is that we’ll keep them on all year and then be in a position next spring to have enough funding to bring through student cohort (for the summer).”
Currently, Puente is applying for a $100,000 grant through the county Workforce Investment Board to support the workers through the end of the school year. Private donations cover six of the 29 youth workers at Puente through the spring. Directors at the organization aim to find funds to keep the remaining 23 as well.
“In the interviews (for summer employment), one thing that came up (was) that there’s not a lot for youth to do in Pescadero and La Honda,” said Rita Mancera, Puente community builder. “We felt it was our responsibility to try to provide the opportunity for them to have a job.”
“It was too good of an idea not to do it,” Lobel said.
Puente gets a shot in the arm of fresh, young energy; youthful employees earn some money while working with families and others in need, work that will help them shape and refine their ideas for a career. They tutor, help manage programs, assist with English as a second language courses and, to a certain extent, shadow professional social workers and therapists. They learn computer skills, time management strategies, teamwork and patience.
“I have only good experiences and good things to say,” Beckett said.
Beckett is pursuing a psychology degree at Cañada College. For the first time in his 21 years on the South Coast, he finds himself in an advantageous position for acquiring the kind of knowledge he’ll use to carve a path toward a profession to which he’s never been exposed. Until his work at Puente, Beckett sweated through manual labor each summer – because that’s the bulk of work on the South Coast, he says.
If enough cash doesn’t come in to keep the new batch of employees for the year, Lobel says she’ll stretch other services to make ends meet. In her view, “this is as important as any other program that we provide,” she said.
“It has totally changed our organization. … It’s a road that I never imagined we’d go down, and it’s been the very best road we could have traveled. Our organization is learning and changing so much because of the richness of youth here.”
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