YouthWorks is a state-funded youth employment program that helps teens and young adults get the skills and experience needed to find and keep jobs. Participants take part in paid short-term work placements during the summer and/or school year at public, private and nonprofit worksites.
Participants also receive training in core soft skills so they can practice professional behaviors and learn how to relate to supervisors and co-workers at their worksites. And they learn how to take the next steps in their education and career pathways. All YouthWorks programs use the Signal Success curriculum to help young people learn and practice the skills that matter at work, at school, and in life.
Over the past five years, more than 26,000 teens and young adults from low-income communities in 31 cities have taken part in YouthWorks; in the summer of 2016, over 4,400 young people had summer employment through the program.
