[The following final update was written by the organization and then sent to us for further sharing.]

We are grateful to share that over the one year of the LA2050 Grants Challenge and Hilton Foundation grant period, Flintridge Center has been able to deliver comprehensive, engaging, and individualized employment support to our young people. Grant funds enabled Flintridge Center’s Youth of Promise (YOP) program to implement and further develop our year-round YOP Opportunities curriculum.

Flintridge Center’s Youth of Promise (YOP) program is a year-round program that provides comprehensive diversion and development services for low-income, systems-impacted youth ages 11-18. Youth participate in individualized case management services and a curriculum of enrichment activities.

YOP Opportunities is designed for our youth ages 14-18. The curriculum focuses on educational planning, leadership development, career guidance, and employment pathways. We utilized an after-school curriculum that covers job search techniques, resume writing, interviews, and financial literacy. We developed this program in response to existing gaps in youth future planning and employment development in the community served.

YOP Opportunities participants during Million Little Creative Leadership sessions. Photo credit to Million Little.

YOP Opportunities is a year-round model following the academic calendar. YOP hosts a fall cohort, a spring cohort, and a summer session. Activities included:

1. Individual Employment Plans & Support: Youth worked with their case managers to develop individual employment plans and develop their resumes.
2. Community Volunteering: YOP Opportunities youth volunteered monthly at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and took trips to clean the beach with Heal the Bay. Beyond fostering a strong sense of community, regular volunteering contributes to graduation requirements and is a strong addition to youths’ resumes.
3. Fall & Spring Programming: The group honed their event planning and leadership skills as they planned three community events for YOP families and younger youth in the program. They planned a Back to School BBQ, a Día de los Muertos event, and an end of year Holiday Party.
4. Summer Internships: 6 youth who participated in a school year YOP opportunities cohort were selected to be paid youth interns supporting YOP’s summer program for middle school participants. Youth supported staff with program set-up and served as mentors to younger YOP youth.
5. Partnerships & Referrals: Four students from YOP Opportunities were supported in obtaining internships with partners at City of Pasadena. Since our midyear report, two YOP Opportunities participants completed training with partner Coffee with a Cause, a local organization that provides Transitional Age Youth (TAY) with soft employment skills training and internships in coffee, retail, or landscaping.

Excitingly, for the 2024 spring and fall cohorts, YOP partnered with Million Little, an organization that delivers strengths-based therapeutic arts programming, youth resources, educational workshops and trainings as a means to support the healthy social and emotional development and healing process of at-risk children and families in Los Angeles County and beyond. YOP Opportunities youth are participating in Million Little’s Creative Leadership program, working with arts facilitators to explore their creativity and build marketable skills. Our ten participants gain work experiences while creating art. One participant said, “[What surprised me is] how easy it is to create a brand. All the different ways you can use art to create a brand.” Another participant said, “Using the iPads, it’s really cool to make my design.” Youth gained skills in graphic design, photography, airbrushing, making merchandise, and more.

On a programmatic level, funds to invest in youth employment enabled YOP to build and sustain a year-round curriculum of leadership development activities. The YOP Opportunities program meets youth where they are at, invests in individualized opportunities, and works to discern youths’ interests – effectively building bridges to economic advancement. One of these young people, now attending Pasadena City College while working at Starbucks, shared: “I feel that without YOP I may have not have developed as fully as I have currently, they have provided me with a lot of experiences that I don’t think I’d have been able to get on my own and have continued to be a place I feel I can rely on not only now but far in the future.”

Participant outcomes that we measured at the end of the grant period include:

• 12 youth who obtained an internship or other part time employment;
• 90% of youth reported increases in knowledge and confidence related to job-seeking;
• 1 youth entered a post-high school training program;
• 2 youth entered a 2-year or 4-year college.

YOP Opportunities participants during Million Little Creative Leadership sessions. Photo credit to Million Little.

YOP Opportunities is evaluated using a pre/post questionnaire measuring and 1-1 interviews. The program has filled a gap for our youth in the 14-18 age range. The YOP program has consistently prioritized developing our youth employment development activities as a method of retaining youth ages 14-18 in the program. As part of YOP’s trauma-informed approach, we understand that youth are navigating a complex reality and YOP works to be a positive outlet in this reality, while recognizing that program participation will be unique for every participant. YOP youth above age 16, in particular, experience complex stressors that complicate program activity: caretaking responsibilities for younger siblings, pressure to get a part-time job to contribute to household income, and general social pressures.

YOP recognizes the complexity of these barriers and works with each participant to address their unique experience, develop attainable goals and provide programming in multiple accessible formats. The YOP Opportunities program specifically employs high school youth as interns with the program to earn money while supporting YOP’s younger participants. For example, the schedule that youth interns were able to work depended greatly on the individual, considering their unique school and other commitments. Youth worked with their case manager to set up an appropriate schedule, and we will continue this approach moving forward.

This year, six youth were selected to serve as summer interns based on their readiness. YOP is aiming to select up to 10 youth to serve as program interns for summer 2025.

Moving forward, YOP Opportunities will target low-income youth in 9th and 10th grade, preparing them to be competitive in the workforce by the start of their junior year of high school. We will continue to serve them with a menu of supportive services as they approach high school graduation.