Beyond Fast Food

Youth Job Center Helps Young People Aim Higher

By Victoria Scott

Youth Job Center staff (left to right) Renetta Porte, receptionist; Molly Mullin, program coordinator; Kim Hoopingarner, development director; and Sacella Smith, executive director, celebrate YJC's 25th year.

Evanston native Diana Howard was skeptical when a family friend referred her to the Youth Job Center of Evanston, 1114 Church St., several years ago. Only 20, Ms. Howard was stuck in dead-end, minimum-wage jobs but thought she was "too old" to get help at YJC.

"I was proven wrong," she says.

YJC, says executive director Sacella Smith, helps more than 1,300 young people like Ms. Howard annually, providing them with job-readiness training, job placement and career-path planning.

"It's more than just job placement," says Ms. Smith. "Our programs help job-seekers through every step of the employment process."

Landing a job is not the end of the story at YJC. The agency offers support to both employers and employees on an ongoing basis and stresses the value of continuing education. "We talk about school all the time," says Ms. Smith.

"Our message is ‘J-O-B -- just over broke,'" she continues. "In 2008 you must have some post-high school training to increase your chances of not being in a minimum-wage job."

Ms. Howard got the message. Not only does she work full time as an office assistant at a health-care company, but she is also a full-time student at Oakton Community College.

After earning an associate's degree from Oakton, Ms. Howard plans to study communications at a four-year college. She says she loves her job and sees it as the route to a career in a way her low-wage jobs were not.

The Youth Job Center takes pride in its long history of "helping young people prepare for success in life, not just jobs." Founded by Ann Jennett in 1983, YJC turns 25 in 2008.

YJC recently received a $50,000 grant from Gap, Inc. Currently funded equally by government, corporations and individuals, the organization knows its best advocates are its clients and employers, says development director Kim Hoopingarner. Its April 26 benefit will highlight their stories.

The agency enters its silver anniversary year much expanded from its modest beginnings - but also more focused, since a 24-member working board revised the mission statement in 2006.

Seven full- and three part-time employees, all with bachelor's degrees and most with master's degrees in social work, along with two Americorps/VISTA workers, now manage the agency's four programs.

In addition, YJC operates the Outpost, a satellite office at Evanston Township High School that offers eight-week workshops on the steps necessary to succeed in the workplace.

Each in-house program is geared to a subset of at-risk Evanston and north Chicago youth. Job seekers looking to work immediately are steered toward YJC's core placement service. Out-of-school youth enter a career program involving a subsidized skills training course or community college sequence. Fourteen- and 15-year-olds can tutor in District 65 summer school classrooms. And young people seeking full-time jobs can enroll in a three-week job-training program called Strategic Corporate Alliances (SCA).

Danielle Blackwell entered SCA four and a half years ago and praises components such as résumé writing, mock interviews, instruction in the EXCEL computer program and Internet job searches. Life skills like budgeting were "really helpful," she says. "I still use that."

Ms. Blackwell found a job she enjoyed at Northwestern University. When it ended, she went back to YJC for help updating her résumé, then was hired as a receptionist at DePaul University. From there, she became an office assistant at DePaul, "an amazing place to work," she says.

She has an upcoming second interview for an even better job at the university, news she cannot wait to share with Sacella Smith, with whom she keeps in touch. "I talk to her about situations in the workplace. Once you graduate [from YJC], it's a continual process," she says.

Molly Mullin is a program coordinator for the Out of School Youth program, which serves low-income young people with at least one barrier to employment. Increasingly, say Ms. Mullin and Ms. Smith, that barrier is a criminal record.

The program includes an intake assessment of the job-seeker's interests and abilities, counseling about realistic goals, and vouchers for short-term skills training in fields like health-care or truck driving. YJC grant money pays for up to 200 hours of internship at $7.50 an hour, as well as for supportive services like transportation or childcare.

"It's rewarding," says Ms. Mullin of her job. "With day-to-day changes, we see [our clients] achieve success."

"We celebrate successes," says Ms. Smith. The staff rings a bell for good news and honors an employee and employer of the month. They remain "open-minded as to what success is," she says. "Sometimes it is six months at the same job."

Renetta Porté traces her success to SCA. She says discussions about consequences kept her from walking out on her first job after the course. Instead, she gave proper notice - and was hired as YJC receptionist.

"I wish more people knew about YJC," says Danielle Blackwell. "The younger generation thinks they can only work with fast food. There's so much more out there if you're willing to put forth the effort."

Central Street Zoning Delayed

By Mary Helt Gavin

A controversy over a zoning change in one section of the Central Street Master Plan has delayed the vote until at least the Jan. 28 City Council meeting. Although the Council adopted the Master Plan last July, aldermen must also approve zoning amendments that would allow the plan to be implemented, said zoning administrator Bill Dunkley. These amendments, to the City's zoning ordinance as well as to the zoning map, would create the Overlay Central Street Corridor and several small zoning districts within it.

The district spans Central Street from the Crawford/Gross Point Road intersection on the west to Ridge Avenue on the east. Within the overlay district, much of the property along Central Street is down-zoned from a maximum height of four stories or 45 feet to three stories or 35 feet. The more commercial areas - at Gross Point/Crawford/Central, along Central between Hartrey and Prairie avenues and along Green Bay Road north and south of Central Street - are zoned B1a, which permits mixed-use developments up to four stories.

With the exception of proposals for some property owned by Northwestern University - which were withdrawn when the University objected - and the zoning change in one sub-area, the plan as presented is essentially the plan approved by the Plan Commission last year.

Much of the community appeared to support the plan. Jeff Smith, president of the Central Street Neighbors Association said, "Although we did not get everything that residents wanted, the proposed zoning has many important provisions and new ideas that implement the residents' and the adopted Central Street Plan's primary objectives of preserving the village character of the corridor and sustaining and enhancing it as a location for diverse, unique, small-scale, pedestrian-oriented retail shops, services and restaurants."

The wrinkle arises from a change in one of the sub-areas that would allow a dormitory as a special use - that is, the change would permit City Council to entertain requests that the property be used for a dormitory.

Speaking at both the Planning and Development Committee and at City Council, Ken Bailey, said he represented residents in nearby condominium buildings and single-family houses who objected to a zoning change that he said could allow National-Louis University to purchase the building at 1620 Central St. and use it for PACE, the school's education program for students with multiple developmental disabilities.

Mr. Bailey said the change, which would allow dormitories as a special use in the sub-area, was approved by the City's Plan Commission and incorporated into the plan after the rest of the plan had been approved. "Nothing should be added to the [Central Street] plan. If it's not in the plan, it should not be in the implementation [documents]. There is quite a bit of outrage [about the proposed special use]." He added that he felt this change was "transaction driven," since it arose because National-Louis wished to purchase the building. 

Jack Lawler, attorney for National-Louis, said National-Louis requested the zoning change so that it might later apply for a special use for the property: "National-Louis wants to purchase the building at 1620 Central St. to use as classrooms and a dormitory."

He said this would be a special use, not a permitted use, and that in requesting the zoning change that would allow National-Louis to apply for approval of the classroom/dormitory, the zoning administrator Bill Dunkley "took a risk for the greater public good. ... PACE is the Profession Assistance Center for Education, which provides post-secondary education for adults with multiple learning disabilities. It helps them learn to live and work independently."

Mr. Lawler added, "I have lived in Evanston since 1969 and have always been proud of Evanston. What makes it unique is that Evanston is willing to invest in these young people. All that you [members of the Planning and Development Committee] are doing is allowing Council to consider at a later date [whether] to allow this facility as a special use."  

The plan is scheduled for a vote on Jan. 28. If the Council approves the plan, including the zoning change allowing for dormitories as a special use in that sub-area only, National-Louis would have to apply for the zoning change - the special use - using the City's regular procedures.

Aldermen delayed the vote on the Central Street zoning amendments because of a controversy over allowed special uses in the O1 overlay district that affects this building. National-Louis University would like to use it for classrooms and sleeping quarters for its PACE students.