2009 Academy Projects - UCLA
Overview
Every year in southern California, we outreach broadly to recruit a diverse group of teams to participate in the Young Worker Leadership Academy at UCLA. The goal is to develop a network of young leaders throughout the region who can promote awareness about workplace health and safety issues in their communities. In 2009, five teams of four youth with their adult sponsors attended the YWLA at UCLA from February 26 – 28th. The five teams representing both schools and community organizations hailed from San Diego to Bakersfield!
Once again we had a group of YWLA youth mentors, YWLA alumni who complete an application process to play a role during and after the academies. Their contributions to the YWLA are impeccable and make the YWLA all the more successful. Their responsibilities as youth mentors are to participate in a one-day training before the YWLA, lead activities throughout the YWLA, attend youth mentor sessions at the YWLA, and then to plan and complete their own youth mentor project. They also participate in a variety of community events.
Four YWLA teams, including the youth mentors returned to their communities after the YWLA to complete a workplace health and safety project to raise awareness to their peers and community members on issues concerning young workers. Projects varied from informing about child labor laws to sexual harassment during California's Safe Jobs for Youth Month (May). The following are descriptions of the five team projects that resulted in outreach to over 1,000 youth.
PROJECT 1: Foothill is Hip on Safety (FHS)
TEAM: Foothill High School, Bakersfield, CA 
Following the YWLA, the youth named themselves the Foothill is Hip on Safety (FHS) team. They became very creative and successful in promoting workplace health and safety in their community; their endless efforts outreached to over 300 youth and 15 adults during Safe Jobs for Youth month!
FHS created a short True or False quiz on workplace health and safety for young workers, developed posters using the four categories the YWLA uses when identifying hazards in the workplace - i.e. safety hazards, chemical hazards, environmental hazards, and stress hazards. After developing all their materials, the youth planned a culminating event held during two different lunch periods on campus. They had an information table, posters, and the short quiz. After students correctly answered quiz questions, the student participants were able to shoot a basketball into a hoop to receive a prize. There were four different levels for the shots - each color coded to designate the type of safety hazard faced by the young worker.
The success of the project was due to all four youth having a key role in the project, the school administration supporting the project, and the fact that the activity was fun for the participants. Although the project was great, the team experienced a few challenges such as not spending enough time on planning for the event, not completing all the details earlier, and at times struggling to coordinate the planning meetings.
Now that they have reflected on their project, FHS hopes to train and educate their peers so they may replicate the project again for next year!
“I learned that no matter what job I have, I have rights and need to know about the safety hazards…and how to deal with them!” -- FHS Team Member
PROJECT 2: Teen Workers Teaching Rights (TWTR)
TEAM: COMPACT Helping Hands Teen Service Club, Escondido, CA
This YWLA team created a team name for themselves that they felt would both appeal to their peers: “Teen Workers Teaching Rights” (TWTR) and also compliment their new imaginative and popular Twitter internet site with daily updates on young workers health and safety! In addition to their Twitter updates at twitter.com/teenworkersTR, TWTR also developed a great brochure that is filled with important information for young workers. The brochure will be distributed to career centers in all of the high schools within the Escondido Union High School District!
After completing the brochure, on April 30th the TWTR group hosted a booth at Escondido Education COMPACT's Youth Opportunity Day. There, 100 students and 40 adults who had completed work readiness training were given an opportunity to interview with up to four of 37 businesses in Escondido. TWTR made a presentation board with the posters and flyers they received at the YWLA, and passed out brochures to every individual. They created a short quiz based on the brochure to ensure that crucial information had been retained. If their answers were correct, participants received a prize.
TWTR decided to order customized sports bottles that have a list of teen worker rights and reference to a couple of useful websites. The adult sponsor said “all in all, it seemed to be a success!” With implementation of their project came a few challenges such as needing to be more organized logistically and having to create consistent meetings with the team who attend different high schools. After reflecting on their project, the TWTR will continue and is now part of the Escondido Education COMPACT organization.
“This whole project really opened my eyes to what kind of jobs are out there.” -- TWTR member
PROJECT 3: Manual Arts High School 2009
TEAM: Manual Arts High School, Los Angeles, CA 
Manual Arts High School has sent a team to each of the YWLA's held at UCLA beginning in 2006. The four members of the 2009 Manual Arts High School team have undertaken a media educational project intended to raise awareness on young worker health and safety. The students began their journey by having consecutive meetings in various facilities around area colleges and universities, thus setting a professional tone for their project. After planning and with support from a peer educator, the students will develop a small video comprised of clips of interviews with parents, students, and teachers regarding their views and understanding of what young worker safety is and what is already known.
This dedicated team has partnered with peers, gaining support from other students who are also bringing their skills to the group project. In addition, funding was requested from a school grant to support completion of the project. Film directing and editing, along with other artistic student interests have spearheaded the project. The goal is that this short awareness film will voice not only concerns of young worker safety, but pass on available and valuable information and resources. After developing the video, students will distribute copies to community based organizations, middle schools, and even elementary schools around their community. The video will be available in Fall 2009.
“I knew some rights that you had but not all the rights for teen workers when I participated at the YWLA!” --
Manual Arts High School Team member
PROJECT 4: South Bay Community Services
TEAM: South Bay Community Services, Chula Vista, CA
Another team from southern California was the South Bay Community Services EXCEL. The program complements the YWLA because EXCEL prepares youth and adults to achieve academic and employment success. EXCEL provides work readiness training, paid and unpaid internships, life skills classes, housing assistance, financial literacy and more!
EXCEL youth interns received a one-time presentation during their orientation -- and it was presented by one of the YWLA participants during Safe Jobs for Youth month. There were ten interns and two young adults present. The outline of the presentation included facts and stories of young worker injuries, how to identify different types of hazards in the workplace, and young worker rights -- e.g. child labor laws. The interns were very responsive to the presentation. The interns were surprised about the information they received because they didn't know any of the information presented to them and were glad and know that the knowledge gained would be useful in their new job placements.
Every two months there is a new group of EXCEL interns and they hope to continue presenting their YWLA project. A challenge that they did face was not having more detailed interactive information in their presentation and more time to present. Yet, the use of the Safe Jobs for Youth curricula and Talking Safety Curricula that are given to all adult sponsors were very useful!
“I learned so much in YWLA and now I can walk into a job site knowing that I can be safe and have rights.” --South Bay Community Services Team Member
PROJECT 5: Youth Mentors 2009
TEAM: Southern California Youth Mentors
Youth Mentors are YWLA alumni from previous years who applied and were accepted to participate in the 2009 YWLA as mentors. This year, they received additional training on developing peer education and leadership development skills in workplace health and safety issues. After the one-day training, they had a better understanding and readiness to take on their youth mentor role. At the 2009 YWLA, the youth mentors did a great job in leading activities for their peers and making the Academy more successful than ever.
The youth mentor project consisted of providing a series of workshops and participating in a 2009 Workers Memorial Day event. The target audience for their outreach was educators and youth. Their first workshop was given at the 2nd annual Education and Labor Collaborative Forum: Teachers, Workers, and Parents organizing for a new “new deal” -- Teaching and Learning about Labor and Social Justice. 25 United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) members participated in the workshop -- all were high school teachers.
On the same day, one youth mentor was a speaker for the youth panel held at LOSH's and SoCalCOSH's Workers Memorial Day event. The youth closed with the “Fab 4” performing their “Safety” rap, which is available on LOSH's website at Safety Video.
Lastly, the youth mentors provided a workshop at Manual Arts High School, outreaching to over 60 youth. The high school students responded with active participation and positive feedback on the information that was presented by the Youth Mentors.
“Everyone learned how to be cautious at work, hopefully not only for themselves, and I hope each individual was motivated to continue to spread the word to teens about their rights and safety in the work place.”— Youth Mentor
2009 Projects - Berkeley Academy
Six teams attended the YWLA in Berkeley, CA from January 29-31, 2009:
YouthCares - International Institute of the Bay Area (San Francisco)
College Track (Oakland)
One Achievement (Stockton)
Project YES (Ceres)
Sacramento Youth Commission (Sacramento)
San Joaquin County Office of Education (Stockton)
For information on the teams and their post-academy projects, click here.