[Nesabes] FW: Important Event for those who work with At-Risk Youth (Follow up to P21 and Grad Rate Summit)

[Bower, Carol]

Subject: Important Event for those who work with At-Risk Youth (Follow
up to P21 and Grad Rate Summit)

 

Dear Partners-

 

At the P21/DOE Graduation Rate Summit last March, state agencies and
school administrators requested a way to better connect with other
youth-serving agencies to provide services to our at-risk youth, as part
of our regional drop out prevention and recovery strategy.   

 

To better educate public school staff, parents, and front-line staff at
youth-serving agencies, the ValleyWorks Career Center is hosting its 3rd
Annual Transitional Information Fair, "Beyond School: What's Next?"
Representatives from over 20 youth-serving agencies will be on hand to
answer questions concerning programming, services, eligibility
requirements, and resources available to school staff, parents of
at-risk youth and youth-serving organizations.  Over the course of this
event, mini-workshops will be offered covering a variety of relevant
topics, such as post-secondary educational options, job-readiness
curricula, job search services, government benefits and programming,
parent advocacy, independent living, the IEP process, and the like.
Additional information can be found on the attached flyer.  A Spanish
version of the flyer will follow next week.

 

This event is only held once a year.  If you are a school administrator,
please consider offering comp time or PDP's for staff participation.
The better educated your staff members are concerning outside resources
to help at-risk youth achieve, the more effective we will all be in
keeping more of our youth engaged and in obtaining more positive
outcomes for our at-risk populations. 

 

It's especially important that parents come to this event.  Most parents
do not understand that agencies not only define "youth" and "adult"
differently, but that program eligibility can drastically differ from
youth programming/benefits to adult programs.  Students eligible for
assistance as a "youth" may no longer be eligible as an "adult."
Parents and students rely too heavily on school educators to be the
local experts for all transitional information, only to struggle once a
student is no longer enrolled in high school.  Many students make poorly
informed decisions about post-high school work and education (or opt out
of both completely!) because of the impact it could have on SSI
benefits.  Help us empower parents to make better informed and help
students make better informed decisions.

 

To empower parents to be proactive rather than reactive, and to help
them to plan accordingly, we ask school contacts to target freshmen and
sophomore parents.  ALL parents, school staff, CBO staff, FBO staff and
community members, however, are invited and welcomed.

 

Anyone with questions can contact me directly.

 

Thank you for your assistance in spreading the word about this
significant event.

 

Chris Shannon

Youth Workforce Program Manager

Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment Board

60 Island Street

Lawrence, MA  01854

(978) 682-7099

 

 

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