Growing up in the Pico Neighborhood in Santa Monica, 18-year-old Paula Murillo spent a lot of time in the Virginia Avenue Park, enjoying the many amenities this community campus offers.
During one of her visits, Paula heard about the possibility of getting her first shot at a job by joining the Youth Resource Team at the park’s Youth Center as part of the Santa Monica Youth Employment Program (SMYEP).
The program, which JVS SoCal operates, gave her the flexibility to work around her school responsibilities and did not require her to have work experience —a barrier many young adults face when trying to join the workforce.
Paula decided that the opportunity to work while still in high school was too good to pass. “It’s been very important for me,” she says, “this experience helped me to develop a strong work ethic and just overall it helped me expand my world.”
One of Paula’s responsibilities during her time with the Youth Resource Team, was tutoring children from the local elementary school. “I enjoy working with kids,” she says. As a member of the Math Club herself, she took pride in helping them with homework and involving them in different activities so that they would become interested in math.
“I think it is a great deal for the participants,” says Dolores Romo, Community Program Director at Virginia Avenue Park, “through our partnership with JVS SoCal we are able to pay them for community service… it feels to me like a paid internship for these kids and it will look well on their college application.”
Virginia Avenue Park is both a host for this youth-focused program and a principal employer partner providing Santa Monica families with this valuable resource.
JVS SoCal runs the SMYP with support from the City of Santa Monica through one of their Human Services grants. The partnership helped serve close to 50 teenagers during the last fiscal year. It provides youth ages 16-24 with career readiness services, job search assistance, and work experience opportunities. It also assists youth to overcome barriers to employment and reach educational goals through career exploration, internship placement and case management.
Other employer partners of the program include TJ Maxx and The Boys & Girls Club. Thanks to this program, participants can experience a variety of work environments and practice money management. The pay they receive allows them to cover personal expenses and help their families, if needed.
The SMYEP offers participants 30 hours of paid work. Some of the participants are able to add as many as 130 hours if they are eligible for the federally funded the Work-Based-Learning (WBL) program offered by JVS SoCal through the America’s Job Center of California network. Most of the participants are considered “a-promise” youth, from low-income families, underserved communities, or in foster care.
“For all kids, I think it’s really important because it’s giving them a chance to help with their self-esteem, they are able to work, help out at home if they need to or just, I really want to buy this and they can afford it,” explains Romo.
Through this partnership with the city of Santa Monica, participants get exposed to other resources like scholarships for higher education. They are also encouraged to let their parents know of other social services available like legal help, CalFresh and MediCal programs.
Even though Paula will not continue in the program next year, she would love to be able to return as a volunteer in the future. As she gets ready to start working on her business degree in college, Paula admits her participation was one of the highlights of her teenage years.
“It was really a wonderful opportunity… I put myself out there and I’m proud of that” concludes Paula.
If you’d like to help youth like Paula get started on a career, please donate!