SUMMER WORK PROGRAM
Dear SWP Parents,
Thank all of you for your engagement and participation so far. Our communication has been great, and you have responded to my requests as soon as possible; thank you so much.
The program kickoff occurred on Tuesday, June 20, 2023, with training at New Tech High School.
On training day, the youth had the opportunity to meet their respective mentors and received all the information, materials, and uniforms needed for the program.
The mentors and other presenters worked with the youth on various activities, including a financial literacy workshop, Nicasa Teen Court mock trial, team building, and leadership exercises, and reviewing the employee handbook. We thank Nicasa, Community Partners for Affordable Housing, and Chris Kubic, Zion Benton Township High School social studies teacher and community leader, for such great presentations. Also, thank you to New Tech High School for letting us use their space and The Grove at the Lake for providing lunch and beverages for everyone.
Thirty youth were hired, and each went through an application and interview process. Five of the 30 were placed at Zion-Benton Public Library and Zion Assessor’s office. The rest of the youth were placed in a maintenance crew.
I also want to thank the Zion Township staff who worked hard to plan and coordinate this event. Each staff member took the lead in some capacity to coordinate Parent Orientation, interviews, Training Day, job placements, and the curriculum for the program.
The Summer Work Program curriculum is based on the Community Character words: Respect, Integrity, Responsibility, Safety, Perseverance, and Kindness. Each week, there is a plan for the week by relating the character value of the week to the available work assignment. The youth review each word and take assessments to measure their learning and understanding of each word.
This newsletter showcases Training Day and the first two weeks of the Summer Work Program. Many fun and educational projects and activities are scheduled for the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned! We hope your youth is enjoying the program as much as we are. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have questions or concerns.
Adriana Ortiz Client Services Director& SWP Program Coordinator
Meet the 2023 SWP Mentors
Mentor Shardaye Bone joined the team in June 2023. Supervisor Rod Henry has been with Zion Township since June 2008. We hired great mentors who are coaching, teaching, mentoring, and showing the youth the ins and outs of employment and helping develop leadership and citizenship skills. Mr. Rod Henry has been part of SWP for about fifteen years and is SWP Supervisor. Mr. Henry has been a great asset to the program. The new addition to the team is Ms. Shardaye Bone, who has a background in working with youth. She is eager to learn the program and to work with the youth.
Thank you to one of our partners, The Grove at the Lake, for donating Subway sandwiches, cookies, chips, and propel water to nourish everyone on Training Day.
Pictured: Program Coordinator Adriana Ortiz, Stevie Crucianelli, and the Owner of Subway on Greenbay and 173, and his son
Week 1 & 2 July 3, 2023 Safety Respect
Parent Orientation & Application Intake
The Workforce Development of Lake County staff met with the families to complete an application. At this meeting, the Summer Work Program Coordinator also met with the parents to give them an overview and expectations of the program, shared some important dates, and received the township's application and forms.
Our mission is to help and support the kids to succeed in employment. Zion Township’s Client Workforce Coordinator, Amy Onan, and Business Manager, Sandra Usher, conducted an Interview Soft Skills workshop. In the session, the youth received interview tips (seen on page 4) on appropriately presenting themselves in an interview. During the interviews, the youth applied the skills they learned at the workshop, showing how well the received the information. Zion Township staff was very impressed with the outcome.
Youth Interviews
On May 22, 2023, Zion Staff interviewed all the participants. This exposure gave the youth the practice of an interview and placement. We learned about what they like doing and some of the things they are proud of. Everyone was prepared and dressed for success. Many youth displayed leadership and team skills, were very confident, and were respectful to the staff. On this day, we also took their ID picture. Great job parents, for ensuring your youth was prepared for their interview!
Interview tips received at the Parent Orientation event:
Researching the job you are applying for Practice interview questions
Think about what you want to wear to the interview
The first impression is crucial
Arrive 10-15 minutes early for the interview
Acknowledge the interviewer
Give a firm handshake if the interviewer extends a hand Eye contact is essential
Think about your answer before responding, and always give thoughtful answers
Make sure to follow up with the interviewer after the interview.
Training Day - Welcome from Township Supervisor
The program kickoff took place on June 20, 2023, with training. The youth attended various workshops on training day and received their uniform, schedule, and ID. The mentors reviewed the employee handbook with the youth laying out the program's expectations. This activity was the foundation to get them started on the job.
Supervisor Cheri Neal welcomed the youth and talked about opportunities and leadership. She offered to work with them on how they can create opportunities versus focusing on the problems. She offered to spend some time coaching them and offered them the TED book to use as a guide. This offer was open to anyone who wanted to take the opportunity.
Cable Management Project: SWP Youth Marshon, assigned at the Zion-Benton Public Library is taking the key role of cable management that has been desperately needed for many many years at the library. Marshon has been discovering unused and damaged cables, as well as tidying up the cables for a much cleaner workspace area. In the short few weeks he’s been here, he has already cable managed nearly every department in the entire building! Since the beginning, Marshon has always arrived to work with a go-getter attitude and is not afraid to ask questions along the way as a learning opportunity. The library and I are forever grateful for all the hard work he’s done so far for us and the community.
Zion Township Supervisor Cheri Neal
Training Day - Team Building Workshop
ZBTHS social studies teacher and community leader
Chris Kubic lead some team-building activities for the Summer Work Program. Students learned about how their personality can allow them to work best with other people, then they worked together to build a structure out of various materials and competed to design an apparatus to move a ball as a team. They worked on their collaboration and communication skills for both tasks and were reminded that HOW you do work is often as important as WHAT you do.
Their future jobs won’t involve play-doh or bungeecord constructions, but they will include teamwork, persistence, listening, and focus, and that’s what they showed in the day’s activities! Good luck to the students this summer for a productive and fun experience!
Chris!
Training Day - Nicasa Teen Court
The Nicasa Teen Court program is a restorative justice volunteer program partnered with the Lake County Police Department and Sheriff's Department. Teen Court provides a structured alternative for youth charged with misdemeanor offenses. Teen Court is peer-driven and provides a constructive sentence to allow youth to take responsibility for their mistakes. Youth volunteers in Teen Court learn the roles and responsibilities of various parts of the judicial system. The volunteer jurors also learn valuable leadership, critical thinking, communication, and empathy skills.
The Teen Court Program provided a mock-trial presentation for students. Students had the opportunity to receive first-hand experience on how the Teen Court Program runs and the responsibilities of each role in the program. Students acted as a juror, court clerks, forepersons, defense attorneys, prosecuting attorneys, and participants. The students had the opportunity to learn the importance of understanding the root cause of a behavior and the importance of helping others learn from their mistakes.
Training Day - Handbook Review
The mentors reviewed the SWP handbook with the youth and reviewed the program expectations. The youth also completed the Six-Character word pre-assessment and set personal goals for the six weeks. We will conduct a postassessment to measure the learning.
Training Day - Financial Literacy
Community Partners for Affordable Housing (CPAH), HUD Certified Counselors Janina Hall, and Laura Olvera provided a financial literacy presentation geared towards teenagers developing good financial habits to help them make, manage, multiply, and protect their hard-earned money.
Topics covered were: Earning, budgeting, spending, borrowing, and savings goals. Each youth was given bank swag from a partner lender, Wintrust Mortgage, which included sunglasses, a notepad, and other goodies.
Week 1 & 2
Idriss Joseph from the Minister of Finance is teaching a weekly financial literacy series workshop and meeting with the youth. His first presentation was What is Money, Taxes, and Cashflow. He talked to the youth about how to produce income and reviewed the Cashflow Quadrant: Employee, Business Owner, Self-Employed, and Investor. He will continue working with the youth for the rest of the program.
The youth have also worked throughout the community and supported the Zion Park District with trash cleanup. This assignment gave the youth a sense of community.
Screen Protector Deployment: SWP Youth Marshon assigned at the Zion-Benton Public Library, is installing screen protectors to the iPads that power their new self-checkout kiosks! It requires lots of patience on making sure the screen is clean, configurations are set before and after application of protector, and redeployment of the kiosks. It only took him one walkthrough together before he took on the rest of the kiosks entirely on his own!
Feed My Starving Children
Each year the youth get to take a trip to Feed My Starving Children in Libertyville. This is a non-profit organization committed to feeding hungry children across the world to break the cycle of poverty. This is a unique and powerful experience that teaches the youth about volunteering, showing kindness, and the impact they made working together. We also use this as a team-building exercise. The youth were part of a larger group that packed 71 boxes, which equals to 15,336 meals. These boxes will feed 42 kids daily for a year. Great job everyone!
Feed My Starving Children
SWP & Community
Upcoming Events Achievements
July 12: Esther's Well Ribbon Cutting 6 pm
July 20: Youth Summit at College of Lake County in Waukegan
July 28: Youth ONLY year-end celebration
11:30 am - 1:00 pm
Zion Together Days (Zion Park District
Bandshell) - 2400 Dowie Memorial Drive.
August 3rd: Concert in the Park
August 4th: Movie in the Park
August 5th: Back to School Explosion
August 19th: Zinnia Festival
August 20th: Monarch Mania
Interview Soft Skills
Training Day
Weekly Assessment: Respect & Safety
Adopt-A-Highway
Street Cleaning
Zion Park District Trash Pickup
Galilee Trail
Carmel Blvd
Shiloh Park
Hermon Park
Edina Park
Team Building: Money Management Workshop
Wash tables and chairs at Christian Assembly of God
Feed My Starving Children Trip
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