Special Needs Youth Employment

Youth economic advancement

Long Beach

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

This Community is plagued by economic inequity, crime and social injustice, educational disparity, housing instability, and food insecurity,. The disparities impact the entire community, but the most impacted are the youth, particularly the special needs youth. There are less resources available in this area. Unlike some of the more affluent communities, the LB Unified School District (LBU) is challenged to find local businesses that can afford to partner with them to hire these youth to invest in helping them make successful transitions into adulthood. The choices are limited for many of these youth and there are so many negative options made available to them by the criminals who see them as easy marks.
Helping them transition involves more than just giving them a paycheck, it requires extra training, investing in them wholly – helping them become members of the community who will uplift and build a better community. Helping them understand and subscribe to sustainability

Our existing programs support sustainability, workforce development and food stability for 6 local groups:
1. Special Needs young adults 18-22, transitioning through Long Beach Unified’s ACT transition program – hiring these youth to help us set up and run our monthly community Free Farmer’s Market, and supporting them in integrating to employment and independent living.
2. Senior citizens and Families experiencing food scarcity – providing a monthly Free Farmer’s Market and a weekly grocery distribution to over 500 families
3. Special Needs adults through a partnership with Easterseals to provide paid work experience and training.
4. Local nonprofits such as Sowing Seeds of Change, a local farm in downtown Long Beach, whom we pay to provide gardening classes to our Special Needs Young Adults, teaching them to grow their own food.
5. Local small businesses such as a commercial kitchen and chef/owner in downtown Long Beach whom we pay to provide cooking and nutrition classes to our Special Needs Young Adults, teaching them to cook farm-to-table.
6. Local professional chefs hired to do cooking demonstrations each month at the Free Farmer’s Market events, teaching farm-to-table cooking strategies utilizing the very produce we will give out at that day’s event.
Your grant would allow us to expand our reach to increase the special needs youth we hire from 8 to 25. We would expand our use of these youth to include hiring them in our weekly food distribution program as well.

This program could serve as a boilerplate for other school districts in challenged communities within the County of Los Angeles. If more school districts created these opportunities for their transitioning special needs youth, the impact could potentially be astronomical. This program could serve as an example to local businesses and local nonprofit agencies in these communities of how they can make a difference in their community.