Spotlight

YouthForce NOLA

SPOTLIGHT

By Lynzi Whalen

YouthForce NOLA is a New Orleans-based education, business, and civic collaborative eager to inspire young adults to branch out into new career pathways. In 2015, 10 years after Hurricane Katrina, Leslie Jacobs and 12 co-founding organizations shared a vision to help public school graduates in the New Orleans area. After realizing that the school systems were seeing very high ACT scores and academic improvement, it was perplexing why there was still a significant portion of black New Orleanians without work. So, YouthFoce NOLA set out to improve the racial divide. Melissa Ehlinger, the organization’s chief of external affairs, explains that, “Employers were having trouble finding local talent, and kids 12-24 didn’t have much awareness of further education and job opportunities available. A considerable percentage were neither working nor in school. Kids didn’t know how to connect to opportunities in the area, and so YouthForce NOLA was born to be the intermediary, connecting different organizations to New Orleans public school graduates.” Currently, YouthForce NOLA is focused on opening more doors to public high school students by partnering with different organizations across the city to provide internship programs and teach core skills to prepare them to enter the workforce. Ehlinger states, “Technical skills are excellent, but we would equally like students to have soft skills such as showing up on time, being critical thinkers, and being problem solvers. We believe in establishing good teamwork and ensuring that these students are fully prepared for their first job. These internships were born to train them at entry-level to learn the skills they need to excel in their career choice.” YouthForce NOLA offers summer internships in various career choices such as healthcare, digital media, IT, business services, and skilled crafts such as engineering, architecture, and water management. Career awareness and exploration is another main focus for YouthForce NOLA. Ehlinger states, “Individuals will never apply for a job if they don’t know the job exists.” The organization will continue to bring recognition to further career education available around the city. Their summer training program builds great brand ambassadors to spread the word of all the excellent instruction they provide. They now directly partner with schools, so students get awareness about technical training opportunities. This organization’s goal for the future is to expand the quality and quantity of technical skills for young adults in New Orleans. YouthForce NOLA will continue building firm bridges into sustainable career fields and opportunities in the community. Ehlinger states, “Ultimately, we want to make sure the youth in this city are connecting to academic opportunities and career pathways. We want them to have the ability to branch out to different employers. We also want to make sure the employers we partner with create welcoming environments for their entry-level employees. All of our partners are very excited about diversity equity inclusion. They are very eager to diversify their workforce.” To learn more information about YouthForce NOLA or to donate, visit youthforcenola.org.