Thursday, July 25, 2024
Today, Partnership 4 Success (P4S) graced the halls of LTWLA's downtown office yet again, but this time, they were there to interact with the youth who are doing three of the summer cohorts: Logistics, Mental Health, and Fashion. The theme was about Workforce Readiness with a concentration of “Careers into SEL [Social Emotional Learning] through Impactful Relationships.”
Through open discussions and group activities, they covered such topics as:
Self-Awareness
Self-Management
Social Awareness
Personal Responsibility
Optimistic Thinking
Goal-Directed Behavior, and
Decision-Making
The P4S representatives, Kevin Gilmore (the Collective Impact Manager of P4S) and Omowale Crowder (P4S Facilitator) began the session by having the participants come to the swag table to select the items of their choosing. It was a veritable buffet of journals, pens, stickers, and more. As each person came through the line, they shared their high school’s name and grade level which created a warm atmosphere of camaraderie that prepped the room for the upcoming discussions and collaboration.
To wrap up the experience and demonstrate the importance of communication and decision-making, the participants were instructed to leave all belongings at their seats and move down to the presentation space - all without speaking! They were told to place themselves in an arc in order of their birth month and day.
Pictured below in 3 stages, they can be seen trying to communicate without sound, gesticulating in a light-hearted blend of humor and frustration. Then, they tested for accuracy by doing a round-robin declaration of their birth month and day aloud, discovering some mistakes. Once the errors were fixed, the entire crowd was sorted into one wide arc, and they discussed other ways it could have been conducted (different instructions, examples of how to show information without speaking, etc.).
P4S’s interpretation of workplace readiness was perfect for these youth because of their active engagement in their respective summer programs offered by LTWLA. It was a welcome and invaluable addition to the cohorts’ curriculums because professional development is only bolstered when examined from different angles and by different parties.
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