What kinds of employment programming does Choices for Youth offer?
Choices for Youth offers the Jumpstart Pre-Employment Program, a 13 week program offering pre-employment skills such as workplace responsibility, teamwork, financial management, and personal development to clients. Additionally the organization employs at-risk youth through their 3 social enterprises:
- The Neighbourhood, a secondhand clothing store that provides youth the opportunity to work with customer service and textiles.
- Impact Construction, a construction and property social enterprise that provides youth with job supports, education, and training surrounding construction.
- The Shop, a production and fulfillment centre specializing in small scale manufacturing for small to medium sized businesses that gives youth meaningful employment
What groups within the community does Choices for Youth primarily serve?
Choices for Youth serves youth in the community generally ranging from about 12-29.
What are Choices for Youth’s primary goals, both as an organization, and in terms of employment services?
Choices for Youth’s goal as an organization is to empower at-risk youth in St. John’s through stable housing, employment, and education. On the employment side of things, their goal is to provide training and skills to allow for young people to connect with and maintain meaningful employment.
What have been Choices for Youth’s greatest successes, both as an organization, and in terms of employment ?
Some of the biggest successes for Choices for Youth come from their social enterprise programs. Over the past year their social enterprises employed 51 youth across construction, manufacturing, and retail and created 25,562 hours of youth employment.
Choices for Youth’s “best kept secret” (aka what people tend not to know about the organization)
People tend not to know the wide span of the social enterprises run by Choices for Youth. From construction to retail, there are a variety of options for youth looking for employment through Choices.