The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) focuses on year-around programming, however, summer is often the time of year young people connect to first-time, lasting, and impactful employment opportunities.
Summer work experience opportunities in 2020 were no doubt challenging. Due to the pandemic, local workforce areas around the country had to adapt their service delivery strategies for youth.
The following provides a list of resources and lessons learned for future summer youth employment opportunities.
- Summer 2020 Webcasts features three local areas who share experiences about serving youth in the 2020 summer.
- Summer Jobs Resource Page provides resources to successfully implement a high-quality summer youth employment program.
- YouthEngaged4Change COVID-19 compiles resources to help youth make choices about how to help self and others.
- Video and Audio: Lessons for Supportive Adults on Youth Isolation supports young people as they share their feelings about how the pandemic has disrupted their support networks and deepened their sense of isolation.
- Youth Listening Toolkit shares different youth engagement strategies to systematically engaging youth in projects.
- The Summer Jobs Safety is an outreach effort to share resources on how young workers can stay safe at work.
- 1.0 Digital Summer Youth Employment Toolkit (Aspen Institute) shares a list of digital resources, practices, and tools.
- Staying Connected: Engaging Youth Virtually shares information about virtual engagement tools designed to assist professionals working with youth.
- Strategies for Operating the YouthBuild Program in a Virtual Environment Training Series provides guidance and best practices for programs in a virtual environment.
- Resource lists on (1) Food, Healthcare, Housing, Mental Health and Serving Target Populations and (2) Program Design, Financial Literacy, Mentoring and Work Readiness shares information for youth workforce programs continuing serving young people in virtual environments.
- WIOA Youth Program COVID-19 Session Lessons Shared highlights solutions that the audience members provided during the WIOA Youth Program COVID-19 Session, a Q&A on the impact the coronavirus (COVID-19) on programs serving youth.
- Summer Youth Employment in the Age of Covid-19 (Aspen Institute) highlights specific examples of strategies about how to solve common challenges
- Researcher-Policymaker Collaboration in COVID-19: Lessons Learned from Boston’s Summer Jobs Program (AYPF) discusses how to rapidly deliver and use research to make the case for expanding the jobs program and redesigning it to be safe and enriching for young people during the pandemic.
