Region of Waterloo to hire community housing youth to work in own neighbourhoods

A new employment program will see youth who live in and near community housing owned by the Region of Waterloospending the summer working in their own neighbourhood.

The YouthForce program is hiring 25 people between the ages of 14 and 25 to do various jobs around the housing communities.

"This is a creative and kind of innovative way to really ensure the money we're investing in housing goes right back to the community," said Manager of Waterloo Region Housing MinaFayez-Bahgat.

Three different positions

There will be three positions in the program, whichwill run in July and August.

1. Field worker: for young people who have never had a job. They will be trained to do community clean-up, such as litter pick-up, weeding, sweeping and general housekeeping in common areas.
2. Unit inspectors: for youth with a bit more work experience. They will be trained to go into community housing units to perform annual inspections. This position is good for those interested in getting into property management or capital repair work, Fayez-Bahgat said.
3. Supervisor:for young adults looking for an opportunity to lead. They will oversee the field workers and the unit inspectors.

A job fair was held on the weekend and Fayez-Bahgat said about 40 young people were there and applied for work, filling outan Employment Ontario application. Some even applied for more than one position.

"They may be eligible for other provincial programs and funding, so this was an opportunity to connect them into some of the different possible funds that are available for young people looking for jobs," he said.

The community centres are expected to make job offers this week.

Paid to attend workshops

But it's not just a summer job,Fayez-Bahgatsaid.Along with their regular work,those who are hired will takecourses from an employment and income support team every Friday. Topics such as resume building, how to have a successful interview, social media awareness and financial management, and attendees willbe paid for their time.

"This is the part where there's a personal and professional development component that really fortifies their skillset beyond just the field work or the day-to-day job duties," Fayez-Bahgat said. "We want to make sure that this program is not just a summer job but it is a tool to really allow you to be competitive in other job positions that you seek after you have this experience."

The Friday courses are open to all applicants not just the successful candidates, he added.

Fayez-Bahgat said he hopes this is just the start of a great employment opportunity and he wants to see the program grow.

Build sense of pride

Byhaving the youth work in their own community, it will build a sense of pride.

"In the long run when you start seeing young people take more ownership in their communities and have pride in them and really push back on those who maybe participate in negative activities the graffiti, the trashing of the communities," he said, adding while it's not much of a problem currently, the youth will become champions for their neighbourhoods.

"If you're spending time cleaning up your community, you really are going to take pride in it and you're going to make sure nobody steps that work backwards."