Youth, Opportunity and the Coming Green Jobs

The swift economic contraction of 2008 has quickly thrown millions into the ranks of the unemployed. But even before the downturn started, roughly 5 million young Americans aged 16 -24 already were enduring a life out of school, out of work - and largely out of luck.

With the economy turning for the worse, you would expect minority youth, living in cities with already appallingly high drop out rates, and facing bleak job prospects, to be particularly without hope. But visiting YouthBuild Philadelphia's school and work program recently, I found instead an oasis of determination positively focused on the future.

There, on an upper floor of a formerly industrial building on Philadelphia's North side, a meeting room was jammed with 90 young men and women who as recently as September had been among this dead end generation, disconnected from school and work. As part of YouthBuild Philadelphia's year long routine of 6 weeks of classroom education alternating with a 6 week construction on-the-job training session, these students had gathered with a dozen teachers and staff to give "shout outs" to acknowledge each other's accomplishments.

One teacher asked a young man to stand up, then told how he had made her weekend when, on a recent class visit to a museum, he had told other students that he loved going to the exhibits "just for the knowledge." A student rose and thanked a teacher whose literature class "made me appreciate the tenacity of my culture, and that my power is not physical power but the power of my ideas." Students clapped and cheered, playfully chiding him for "showing off his SAT words."

Afterwards 10 students, an even mix of young men and women, joined the board meeting of YouthBuild USA (full disclosure: I am on YouthBuild USA's Board.) One 19 year old kicked off conversation by expressing a view typical of the group. "I made it to the 10th grade in public school, but they didn't care what I did, so I never did any work. I was afraid of math, but here I've learned I can do it -- now I am a math athlete."

"We've got no metal detectors here," he explained. "When teachers don't treat you like a criminal, so you don't act like one."

Another young person picks up: "I was out on the streets after I dropped out. If I wasn't here, I would be out there selling drugs, or robbing someone - but I am choosing to be here. I don't call this a school - I call it a family." A 2006 graduate of the program now working at YouthBuild Philadelphia tells the adults in the room - and the students: "Its about transformation. Here, it's a safe haven; you know that whatever you are going through, there is someone to talk to who actually cares."

The talk turns to what future lies ahead, halfway through the program year. Someone has mentioned getting help with SAT preparation, and the group is asked how many are planning to go to college. Nine out of 10 hands fly up. Students talk of specific schools they already have in mind, tossing out names like Drexel, Temple and even Princeton.

Antoine Bennett, a 1996 graduate of another YouthBuild program and now a YouthBuild USA Board member, advises," Don't just say you are planning to go to college, say you are going to graduate. When you say it out loud, it becomes a reality."

Creating that reality, of course, requires a little help from other quarters. Many of the 215 enrollees in YouthBuild Philadelphia, like the over 7,000 other poor young Americans who will become graduates of 226 YouthBuild programs around the country later this year, will want or need to move into the workforce after graduation.

Congress will soon be taking up a stimulus plan and any number of related publicly funded construction projects. Emphasizing the benefits of "green" jobs as part of the rationale for such proposals has become almost cliché, but is long overdue. My own proposal for greening American's nearly 5 million units of federally funded affordable housing was released by the Center for American Progress recently,

Jobs touted as green come in a wide range of categories, from semi-skilled basic insulation and weatherization work to highly skilled technicians installing alternative energy systems. If all the emphasis for funding priorities goes to speeding construction projects out the door, we run the risk that those who have never been in the construction workforce are most likely to be left behind again.

Yet the young adults I met in Philadelphia, who now see the promise of a future where just a few months ago they were at high risk for crime, prison, gang life or worse, need a place at the table as well. They graduate ready for it: the vast majority of YouthBuild programs nationally teach green construction skills during the program year.

On the verge of reinvesting in America's crumbling infrastructure, we can also reinvest in America's other all too often ignored asset - disconnected youth yearning to turn around their lives.

David M. Abromowitz is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, www.americanprogress.org, and a partner in the law firm Goulston & Storrs, www.goulstonstorrs.com.

Comments

[KillTheMessenger]

This country is weird. When I got to university, there were no "shout outs" about our "accomplishments". We were simply expected to either perform or drop out. It became completely clear after the first few classroom exercises who the gifted students were and who was just smart. There was no self-loathing, no society blaming and no soul searching. We were all there because WE WANTED to learn physics. And our government had set up a system that allowed us to follow our calling. Some of us would become professors, some of us would be industrial researchers and engineers and some of us would change fields or drop out of university completely. But few of us had any doubts about what we wanted to do with our lives and we were simply there to do it.

And I bet that very few of my fellow students ever regretted doing whatever they have done since.

That you even need to discuss the things you mention in your article proves only one thing: this country has messed up on a grand scale and its youth is suffering the consequences. Little if any of this applies to the rest of the world.

[GrainOSand]

The reality that is self-generated encouragement is not shared by all. Some have circumstances that breed encouragement at home -- where it should exist. However, when it does not exist at home any supplement offered by society in this regard must be appreciated. Even a Republican cannot disagree with something that empowers, especially when such approaches do not cost anything monetarily (their only concern). Broken self-esteem is a real problem and barrier to learning. It is broken self-esteem that causes young people to be violent in the neighborhoods describe. When you learn to take pride and find value in that you are doing it will fill you up on terms of sense of accomplishment, then and only then, will you be free of a need for acknowledgement -- external or otherwise. The young people are growing, I acknowledge that with a knowledge of the obstacles, and the rewards. The main thing for me is that they realize the joy of learning and they find that in life which allows them to practice that joy while being paid such that they can continue to grow and be prosperous over a lifetime. If they solve the complex problems of the world, well, that’s just so much determination about what makes for joy. Astrophysicist, brain surgeon, or circus clown -- enjoy.

Some have to learn that.

[GardenerNorCal]

A good teacher can inspire many. But why focus soley on what those in power like to call green jobs? Why not direct these newly motivated students to come up with solutions to our economic mess. Let them get MBAs but hope they focus on containing the gluttony and insane run towards power and money that lead us into this mess. Let's get corruption out of politics. Let's view the market as something other than mecca.


It remains to be seen whether or not global warming is just another hole in the ozone. A new bubble based on carbon offsets is not the answer.

[Haditup2here]

That is needed across the board -- but let's face it. . The predominant focus and compensation for business majors is the reason why we are in the mess that we are in today in the first place. Our infrastructure is deteriorating and we are consuming energy at a pace that is wreaking havoc on the environment through emissions and non-disposable waste. These are problems that can only be resolved through research and development through SCIENCE and ENGINEERING. Business Management can only go but so far -- and besides engineering students learn early on the importance of taking cost into point by doing cost analysis in determining practical solutions. However, some business majors can't even begin to appreciate the intricacies of engineering (such as performance, efficiency, factor of safety) as they are taught to treat other industries (medicine, engineering, etc) as mere commodities.
Besides our economic MESS is not only due to greed but the stupid notion that money "swapping" and currency manipulation can replace solid manufactured goods and services that ACTUALLY goes towards solving problems.

[Chavez08]

What about those in their 40s, 50s who, by the rule, worked hard, played by the rules and got screwed and couldn't retire or even keep their homes?

I don't hear anything publicly about the exploited-­for-decade­s-then-tos­sed workers who were baited-the­n-switched who really don't have much at all to live for thanks to Globalization.

Also, what kind of lesson does this send to the young when they see their parents/elders exploited, poisoned, worked until they lose their health, their hair, their idenities, their souls - all for nothing? What incentive is given to young people today to be loyal to companies who, regardless of performance, would fire them at the whim anxious investors?

[RetireGreen]

David:
I commend you for your efforts. How about 25 million Green Jobs within five years? The prison population cut in half, free Green Job training for veterans, and a balanced budget. It can be done. Here is the plan:

http://inspiredeconomist.com/2008/12/16/obamas-green-job-plan-x-10/

Our ideas must be bigger, than the challenge that lies ahead, if we are to have any chance at success.

[DuganS1]

25 million green jobs doing what? Cutting the prison population in half would put a huge number of serious criminals in the streets, which would result in much higher crime rates. Green training? Training for what?

[bookbuck2000]

Something about this article makes me feel ill in my stomach. Like when Hiliary Clinton said she was named for SIr Hiliary, or when Oprah backs a non-fiction. This post is all syrup, sickeningly sweet. I have 8 children 9 grandchildren and many hours spent in the schools , and I have never heard any children talk like those quoted here. Call me doubtful of this post.

Finally green has become the new religion for the religionless. I have worked in the electrical utility business for 30+ years. From coal to nuclear to wind including transmission and distribution. Wind without fruther infatructure including large base power power plants such as nuclear or coal will not adequately supply our grids. I have witnessed whole wind parks 1000 Mega Watts shutdown because grid voltage is not maintained in operating parameters.

[David M. Abromowitz - Huffpost Blogger]

bookbuck2000

Your skepticism is healthy, but this is really what I heard from these young people, and have heard from many others going through similar programs. But don't believe me -- go find a YouthBuild program near you and visit (programs are listed on the national website, www.youthbuild.org) Your comment, though, points up that the approach and setting I describe is working for young people who have been considered failure in traditiional public schools in large urban areas. Often the assumption is that once a young person drops out or gets into repeated trouble, he or she is beyond anyone's ability to turn things around. Over 75,000 young people have graduated from programs like the one I describe, in many different cities and states. Check it out further and see what you think.

[GrainOSand]

Beautiful -- I have many to thank for any success and one such entity was a program that allowed me not to be a latchkey kid. I am heartened by this story but I know I could get in the car and drive to an area and witness another reality. The shootings at Columbine caused the society to take a zero tolerance stance towards violence in school. In the eighties, violence in schools I attended was accepted, expected, and reactively dealt with time after violent time. I often wondered after Columbine why the shift. Was it the number of kids involved? The brutality of the act of the perpetrators slapped society out of its seeming stupor concerning the threat of violence in American schools -- really, that is what did it? Or was it something else?

When a young man chased me down the hallway of my grammar school with a straight razor, I needed zero tolerance policy at that moment. When dead bodies were routinely found around the same grammar school, and we would crowd around the window to watch the body bagging of the victim, the neighborhood needed zero tolerance in those times. I know, this is the Lion King and Rafiki is on cue -- “That is in the past!”

Is it?

My point here is simple. How many more are we going to lose before we take the stand that no more can be lost, or maybe it does not matter until it does.