Sadly, thousands of teens each year in Alachua County won’t need a scholarship to college because they are at severe risk of failing or dropping out of high school. Alachua County’s graduation rate, although showing dramatic improvement during the last decade, still reflects more than 22 percent of youth that will not graduate from high school each year. Yet, those youth still deserve a path to economic self-sufficiency and success that doesn’t include college.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ “Education and Training Outlook for Occupations, 2010-2020” about one-third of jobs available were in occupations that typically require post-secondary education. This means that nearly two-thirds of available jobs do not require post-secondary education. Further, most new jobs from 2010-2020 will not require a college degree. However, apprenticeship occupations are projected to grow the fastest during this decade. According to the BLS Outlook, “In 2010, 92 percent of occupations assigned high school as the typical entry-level education required [on-the-job training].”
Many youth are more entrepreneurial in spirit but struggle in traditional academic subjects. In order to stay in school, learn and succeed in earning a high school diploma, these youth need mentoring, coaching, tutoring and support, which is quite often not available in their homes. Among the best practices contributing to that success are strategies that rely on the strength of volunteers to reach through the chaos and connect with students.
The ninth and 10th-graders served by United Way’s Check & Connect initiative have been identified to be at the greatest risk of dropping out of high school. They have failing GPAs and test scores, high rates of absenteeism, disciplinary referrals and lack of family support.
“These children are hungry for adults who can help them navigate successfully through high school,” said Hershel Lyons, Alachua County Public Schools assistant superintendent. “People can help by becoming mentors and tutors, offering as little as a couple of hours a month.”
Debbie Mason, United Way of North Central Florida’s president and CEO, agreed: “We are creating a sense of hope and stability for teens that have not had that in their lives, so they can focus and earn passing grades to get a high school education. If we can create a spark with the youth to capture something that could become a skill — then that turns into a paying occupation — we are breaking the cycle of poverty for a new generation. It all starts with hope, and volunteers make a huge difference.”
Volunteers have the power to change a community by giving youth a hope for a better life. Hope is an important ingredient in developing resiliency in youth, particularly in those from families with generational apathy toward the importance of education in building a pathway to success. Breaking the chain of apathy is important to learn skills.
In order to best prepare our youth for the workforce, it is important that they learn the necessary skills for their chosen occupation. Many skills can be taught through on-the-job training (OJT) as indicated by the increase in OJT occupations. The Alachua County School District is home to 11 high school career academies. These programs offer classes and hands-on training in a variety of occupations, including healthcare, culinary training, automotive technology and early childhood education. FloridaWorks, our local workforce board, also offers multiple resources for learning job skills and gaining work experience to develop a career plan and secure a financial future.
“Hope is a very powerful force. It is a resource valuable enough to be measured by the Gallup – HOPE index,” said Kim Tesch-Vaught, executive director of FloridaWorks. “The FloridaWorks programs and community collaborations create momentum for people of all ages and backgrounds by empowering them with information that sparks hope for their lifelong career development.”
The Hope Index, originally labeled the Gallup-Operation HOPE Financial Literacy Index, set out to measure financial literacy in relationship to hope, wellbeing and engagement. In 2010, more than 70,000 fifth- through 12th-graders took part in the national polling of the Gallup Student Poll. (See more at: http://www.operationhope.org/about-index#sthash.Tgl9TWFj.dpuf.)
Researchers found there is a relationship between hope, engagement, wellbeing and financial literacy. Students with hope are four times as likely to do well in the financial literacy topics and be more successful.
For many children in Alachua County, their futures often start out bleak, living in poverty or in low-income families that are struggling to put food on the table. By the time these youth arrive in high school, they have experienced years of failure and rejection and have become apathetic about school and seemingly disconnected from the importance of graduation from high school in the path to future life success.
Many youth come from families where their parents, and sometimes generations before that, have not experienced the hope for a good life that comes from educational success.
Adults who can commit several hours a month to meet with youth, and offer hope, as well as a sense of caring and direction can literally change the life of a child — and a generation to come in our community. “Volunteering is great for individuals,” Mason said, “their workplaces and for the community at large.”