Staffing the Zone

Six people operate the Youth Empowerment Zone: Demetria Stephens, Purvis Hunt, Ayesha Harmon, Lorenzo Lawson, administrative assistant Shannon Crossman and Phil Williams, a volunteer who helps with maintenance.

“I signed up to be a youth development specialist,” Hunt said. “I didn’t consider myself a mentor, but I have come to see that it became that.” Hunt grew up in San Bernardino, Calif., and served time in jail as a teen.

After meeting a mentor, he decided to change his life. He worked at a residential home for at-risk youths in California until he moved to Missouri.

Shortly after graduating from Columbia College in 2007, he took the job at the Youth Empowerment Zone. He was the ninth candidate to interview for the position.

Stephens worked for Big Brothers Big Sisters for three years before starting at the Youth Empowerment Zone in October. She mainly works with young mothers, though she and Hunt handle up to 15 cases at a time, which can last from one month to a year.

Lawson insists the organization maintain a low number of cases so that more time can be spent with each person.

“It has taken four years to build a reputation among teens that we do what we say,” he said. “Now they trust us and know that there are no unfulfilled promises.

Being from a university town, some of them have been used as guinea pigs for programs that will start and then they’re gone, leaving them with nothing.”

Both specialists work seven days a week, including some holidays. Besides the normal workday, they provide transportation to jobs, visit clients, take phone calls from clients or parents and are invited to birthdays, barbecues and asked to play basketball.

Harmon was raised in Chicago and has a bachelor’s degree of science in education and a master’s degree of art in social work from MU. She worked at the Volunteer Action Center before she got the program director job in 2005.

“I really wanted to work with young people to make an impact on their lives,” she said. “It’s very fulfilling to see the process. You don’t realize how big that transition is until you become a part of it.”

Lawson, a tall man with long dreads and a bumper sticker on his car that says “Real Men Love Jesus,” grew up in Columbia. As a teenager, he said, he began selling drugs, gambling and was in a gang. After dropping out of Hickman High School in 11th grade, he served time in Boone County Jail for carrying a pistol and a second time for assault. In jail, Lawson says, he found Jesus.

Once his time had been served, he moved to St. Louis and received a bachelor’s degree of science in sociology from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He returned to Columbia in 2000 and established Chosen Generation Ministries, an inner-city ministry.

Lawson knew he wanted to be a part of the organization so that he could provide a tool to help create change, one he says was missing in his teenage years.

“The experience of having a single mother who had a substance abuse problem, younger siblings I had to try to make ends meet for and not having decent mentors or a program when I was ready to make a change, brings me that knowledge and empathy,” Lawson said. “I know what it takes, and we believe that each of these young people have what it takes to be successful in this society.”

Forging a better path

Youth Empowerment Zone gives teens a chance to start a new chapter in their lives

By Sarah Horne | news@columbiamissourian.com

Going into 10th grade at Hickman High School, Ahmonta Harris aspires to be a mechanical engineer or a football player. After getting out of the Boone County Juvenile Justice Center four years ago for assault, he finished community service and is looking for a job.

The 16-year-old Columbia native is ready to ”do something better” by becoming “a new, better person.”

He plays football and spends a lot of time at the school’s gym lifting weights. On weekends, he often goes to a movie or a friend’s house.

After graduating, Ahmonta wants to attend MU, Lincoln University or “any college that will accept me.”

For now, he’s looking for work — just about any job that comes his way will do. He was still waiting for his first interview at the end of July but is certain that “when the time comes, I’ll be more prepared.”

A week of job preparedness training in July at the Youth Empowerment Zone — sessions that included practice interviews and phone calls, dressing for work and the importance of eye contact and body language — left him more confident than ever.

Within two weeks of training, Ahmonta submitted applications and his new resume to Dairy Queen, Subway, Gerbes Supermarket, Comfort Inn, Days Inn and Taco Bell. He also applied to Journeys, Foot Locker and Champs, three of the stores in the mall that sell Vans, his favorite shoe brand. He might buy a pair or two, but what Ahmonta really wants to buy is a car.

Ahmonta is one of 97 youths who has been helped by the Youth Empowerment Zone, which serves persons ages 14 to 21, in the last year. In total, about 250 have learned job skills since the program was founded in 2004 by Executive Director Lorenzo Lawson and Nathan Stephens in response to the number of teens in the First Ward who wanted to work but couldn’t get a job.

People use the program for different reasons: to get a better paying job, help with resumes and cover letters, learn about job conduct or, like Ahmonta, they are ready to open a new chapter in their life.

“As a teenager, your tastes start to differ from your parents, and by working you can get some independence,” Stephens said. “I think they are all seeking independence, and there are some that are looking for a change in their life.”

Ahmonta wants to be less dependent and save money for when he moves out of his uncle’s house to attend college. “Having a job will make me more mature, more like an adult than just a teenager,” he said.

Lawson said his clients come from different areas of the city. “There are pockets of economically depressed all over Columbia,” Lawson said. “The majority may not live in the First Ward but are from the First Ward. They may have been born and raised there and their families come from the ward, but they moved out. It’s a very transient type of population.”

Those who enroll in the job training have faced various social barriers such as poverty, growing up in a single-parent household, having parents with substance abuse problems or other issues.

Some dropped out of school or are teenage parents. Purvis Hunt, one of two development specialists at the Youth Empowerment Zone, said many of the teens he helps are “angry, upset, confused — something they’ve learned since they were kids.”

Some of the behavior can be traced to their home life. “Their parents argue and are sometimes abusive,” Hunt said. “They grow up thinking relationships are like that. Some were beaten. Instead of ‘Go to your room,’ it’s ‘Get out of the house.’”

Demetria Stephens, who is married to Nathan Stephens and serves as the program’s second development specialist, said many teens in the community feel safer on the streets than they would at home. “Some of the youth would quit selling drugs if they had jobs, but they have people around the house they have to help, like parents and siblings to support.”

While most of those who go to the Youth Empowerment Zone are black, an increasing number of Caucasians are interested, and the organization hopes to hire a Latino development specialist to reach out to the Hispanic community.

Continued support

The Youth Empowerment Zone continues to help after a client gets a job. The not-for-profit organization offers transportation to and from jobs — even if it means waking up in the middle of the night — along with making checks at work places, giving incentives for work attendance and finding on-the-job mentors.

“We make it clear they must be ready for change,” Lawson said. “If they are not ready, we are not the program for them.”

Verna Harris-Laboy, a community activist and secretary on the Youth Empowerment Zone board, said “the wonderful thing is that it’s there when the light comes on.”

Harris-Laboy has lived in the First Ward for 18 years and believes that those who use the program “find themselves wanting more but don’t know where to get it. They’re young people who need direction and support, and that’s where the Youth Empowerment Zone comes in.”

Anya Townsend, 20, the oldest of seven siblings, was the first of five family members to go to the Youth Empowerment Zone. She wanted to make more money to support her 2 ½-year-old son, Ellius. She had worked at Goodwill, Check n’ Go, Burger King, Pizza Hut, as a telemarketer and for a truck stop.

One month after getting help from the Youth Empowerment Zone in October, she was hired as a linen attendant at University Hospital for $9.06 an hour. Communication with her employer improved because of the guidance, she said.

Townsend loves her work hours from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. since she can spend more time with her son. Eventually, she wants to open her own business, preferably a hair salon.

Townsend’s 17-year-old brother Quan Smith, who has a 1 ½-year-old daughter, went through training a week after her initial visit. After the training, Quan got all answers correct on the job preparedness test, received a suit from Purvis to wear for interviews and got a job at Sbarro’s in the Columbia Mall food court.

Townsend’s two teenage sisters and her teenage brother also got jobs after training at the Youth Empowerment Zone.

Their mother, Tracie Towson, receives calls from Purvis every Sunday and can’t say enough about the program.

“I am on a first-name basis with the staff; they’re awesome,” she said. “You don’t know that many people that like their jobs, but they do. It really did a lot for my kids.”

Jeremy Williams, 17, an incoming senior at Douglass High School, went to the Youth Empowerment Zone in December. He had applied to six different places but had not heard from any of them. Though Williams passed the job preparedness test, he decided to go through training to improve his resumé and learn more about work conduct. He has been working at Sears as a cashier since March and wants to go to technical school to learn mechanics and auto body repair in hopes of one day opening a shop of his own.

Brittaneisha Freelon, 18, will attend MU in the fall. Within a month after going through training, Freelon got a job at the University Bookstore at the age of 14. She was the youngest person on staff and is now the one who has been there the longest. The job has helped her save money for college.

While the organization helps teens learn the ropes, each staff member stresses that the youths were hired through their own merits.

“Our whole program is to assist them, not to do it for them,” Lawson said. “We are not a welfare program, we are an empowerment program.”

In spite of the help, not all of those who get help from the program find work.

“You have a 16-year-old with a record. He still has two years to turn his life around, but he is back to the streets because no one will hire him,” Hunt said.

Building coalitions

The Youth Empowerment Zone has formed corporate sponsors to create relationships with businesses, build credibility and identify job mentors. There are currently 27 sponsors including MFA Oil, University Hospital and McDonald’s, which employ the highest number of clients. Ayesha Harmon, program director since 2005, is seeking more partners and hopes to work with MU and Columbia College.

The Youth Empowerment Zone was originally sponsored by the Boone County Community Partnership, a nonprofit organization that provided money and other resources to help establish the program. After this year, the partnership will no longer fund the Youth Empowerment Zone.

Funds are currently provided by the Missouri Department of Social Services, the city of Columbia, tax credits, sub-contracts with Central Missouri Community Action and Job Point, and the occasional private donation. The program is seeking funds from private donors to expand its budget of about $250,000.

With more space and money, a lounge could be built where Harmon said teens could “enjoy a safe environment and do something positive.” Also, the number of people in the program could increase, a bigger computer lab could be established and the variety of programs would grow.

Free academic and art enrichment programs are planned such as developing a magazine or newsletter, a television or radio show, a dance performance, a song or a short film. The key aspect, Harmon said, is getting the final products seen by the community so that youths feel a sense of accomplishment and ownership.

The program also offers conflict resolution and anger management classes and invites motivational guest speakers, such as human resource workers, to talk about interview techniques.

Charles Neville, previously an information technology specialist at Truman Veterans Hospital, spoke at the program’s center earlier this summer about how he prepared for the interview process and how he ended up with the position.

“One of the things I told them was that they should figure out what they like and find a way to do that,” he said.

Career mentoring is another feature that allows youths to spend a day shadowing a person with a career they are interested in.

The Youth Empowerment Zone is in the process of developing an entrepreneur program, which would work with MU’s Innovation and Entrepreneurial Center to develop a business idea for the youths to create and manage. Lawson hopes this will “instill a positive entrepreneur spirit back into African-Americans.”

The Youth Empowerment Zone was modeled after and worked closely with the Harlem Children’s Zone, a nonprofit organization in Harlem, N.Y. It was founded in 1970 with the goal of improving community life by helping children and youth.

For the past two years, the Columbia organization has received a grant from Communities Empowering Youth to take a group to a leadership conference. Last year, it was held in Jefferson City, and this summer it was held in Atlanta. The sessions teach the skills necessary to go to board meetings as young representatives for groups including the United Way and the city of Columbia.

The state Division of Youth Services, Rainbow House, Juvenile Justice Center, Columbia Builds Youth, Central Missouri Community Action, Job Point, high schools and the court system can use the program as a referral service, though most clients hear about it through friends. Symone Thomas, formerly a counselor at Hickman High School and currently the Columbia Public School District coordinator for Minority Achievement Committee Scholars has referred around 20 people to the program and said that each of the students had a positive experience.

“It’s a wonderful program,” Thomas said. “They’ve been a blessing to me and my kids. They were able to get a job, have a mentor and also learn some things about interviewing and job etiquette.”

Until June, the program operated in offices donated by the Community Partnership in Parkade Plaza before its move to 1204 Rogers St., previously White Water Laundry, to be closer to clients. The program is temporarily situated on the second floor and plans to move to the first floor by September when renovations are complete.