Contacts:
 
Cary Dritz, Ed.D., Associate Superintendent
Peggy Velarde, Director of Career & Technical Education
Jeff Braucht, Program Coordinator
 
465 Horizon Circle
Camarillo, CA  93030
(805) 383-4725
Fax:  (805) 388-4428
 
Purpose:
 
The Youth Networked Services Program (YNS) enrolls in-school youth who have multiple barriers that place them at risk of not graduating from high school.  In addition to strengthening academic performance, the program promotes post-secondary success by providing a comprehensive work readiness training course.  Selected participants are also eligible to participate in either a paid internship program or other work experience activity.
 
Goals:
 
To build a comprehensive program serving at-risk in-school youth by involving participants, schools, parents, workforce agencies, community-based organizations, and businesses with the goal of providing a continuum of academic and workplace development skills.
 
Audience Served:
 
The program is open to income-eligible high school youth (ages 14-18) who present any one of several additional barriers which may place them at risk of not achieving academic and/or workplace success.  These barriers can include, but are not limited to:  homelessness, juvenile justice history, special education status, teen parent, foster youth, etc.
 
What Makes It Unique:
 
The YNS program provides valuable pre-employment skills training that employers feel are sorely lacking in many first-time job seekers.  Each youth attends a 10-hour work readiness curriculum that has been sanctioned by the Ventura County Workforce Investment Board.  The successful completion of this workshop presents an opportunity for highly performing youth to participate in a paid internship aligned with their career interest.  Other youth will receive limited paid work experience so that they can build upon their work readiness training.  This component is often the first exposure to the workplace for many of the participants.  All of this takes place under the umbrella of providing numerous opportunities for academic enrichment, mentoring, and leadership training.  Participants are encouraged and stimulated to achieve successful academic outcomes by selecting and achieving pre-determined goals resulting in financial awards.  Unlike pervious youth employment models, this program contains finite measurements and agreed upon success rates.
 
Funding Source/Business Partnership:
 
This program is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor under the federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998, administered in cooperation with the Youth Council of the Ventura County and the Ventura County Workforce Investment Board (WIB).  We are partners with Work Training Programs, Inc.
 
Summary Statement:
 
YNS is a comprehensive program that forms a working partnership with many segments of the community.  Traditional and non-traditional approaches are used to insure that participants are succeeding academically and preparing for the workforce.  This is accomplished by combining community leadership programs, mentoring, tutoring assistance, internships, and job shadowing, among others, with an ongoing involvement in their academic preparation and success.  We have structured the YNS program so that each component is part of a pathway leading to the participants’ academic success, while preparing them to take a productive role in the workplace of tomorrow.