Youth Apprentices on the West Side
Youth (yooth) – a set of thoughtful, passionate leaders who come to the table with curiosity and power to be unleashed
Apprenticeship (ə-prěn’tĭs-shĭp) – relationship between youth and mentor, from which the youth derives skills, guidance, and challenge, and the mentor derives renewed outlook, meaning, and challenge
Project (proj’ěkt’) – a grand connection that yields great change
Youth are powerful agents of change. This summer, 20 young people in grades 9-12 will be connecting to the West Side neighborhood in St. Paul, Minnesota, and impacting the way it works and grows.
They’ll engage in this process through the Youth Apprenticeship Project (YAP).
Youth who participate in the YAP program are paid through the City of Saint Paul Youth Job Corps to spend 15 hours a week in a neighborhood business or organization working with a committed mentor. While the student will be doing work for the organization, his or her position is transformed from just a job to an apprenticeship because of the committed support of the mentor and the opportunity for meaningful work. This is an exciting way to build capacity in neighborhood organizations and develop young people’s skills in a place-based context.
YAP program staff, including myself, will work with youth at weekly meetings to develop and reflect upon the skills they’re learning in their apprenticeships. We’ll coach the apprentices as they do additional work on projects related to relevant issues in the neighborhood, bringing their personal skills into a community context.
We see this project as a great opportunity that will yield great change, connecting youth to mentors, to one another, and to a larger movement of community building in their neighborhood. These connections are a foundation of support for youth to engage their curiosity and enact their power.
This year, youth will get involved by attending YAP Interview Day on Saturday, March 20 from 12 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Wellstone Center in St. Paul. They will have brief interviews and fill out applications. Young people must interview by March 30, and should hand applications in at the Baker Community Center by April 2. To participate, young people must currently be in 9-12 grade and live or go to school in the West Side neighborhood.
If you’d like more information on YAP, please contact Deb Klein at kleind@augsburg.edu.
This post was written by Deb Klein, coordinator of the Youth Apprenticeship Project based on the West Side of St. Paul, Minn. Interested young people in grade 9 to 12 are invited to Interview Day this Saturday or to arrange another time to be interviewed before March 30. Applications are due April 2.
