Tyler McLean Featured, New Brunswick, Saint John 0

Making the connection between those willing to work for an opportunity and a diverse group of stakeholders willing to offer help has always been part of what drives organizations like the Human Development Council (HDC) in Saint John.

Callie Mackenzie, project manager at the Human Development Council, manages Urban Youth Education/Employment Services, (better known as UYES! ) — a project co-delivered by HDC, The Saint John Learning Exchange , The Teen Resource Centre , and other service providers in the Waterloo Village area of Saint John.

Together with Outflow , they’ve offered a carpentry program to young adults aged 15-30 who face barriers in pursuing educational and employment goals.

The “Introduction to Carpentry and Job Readiness Program” is accepting applications with a plan to kick off another season of learning and building on August 2.

The program introduces young people to the knowledge and skills needed for entry-level employment in carpentry and construction with some of the preparation coming from participation in community projects.

“We’re trying to address that need in the province for people working in trades. But this is not the first time that we’ve done it,” Mackenzie told Huddle.

Mackenzie adds UYES! Is currently in the second phase of the project, which initially began in 2018.

She says The Carpentry Program was there nearly from the beginning, offering skills development for entry-level construction work on some social enterprise housing projects under the former Saint John Community Loan Fund, (now Kaleidoscope ).

Mackenzie knows at least one of the youth that participated in The Carpentry Program ended up moving into one of the units that he had worked on, was able to maintain employment, and ultimately stabilized his life.

“We have a really excellent and very large workshop space over in East Saint John that Outflow has been able to acquire and this is the third time we’ll be working on what we call a tiny home,” she said.

Mackenzie says each tiny home has been built in pieces inside the workshop, which are later assembled just outside in the yard on top of a trailer.

“Because it is a youth employment project, it enables young people who often face different sorts of barriers, and often more barriers than older people,” says Mackenzie, who adds many youth may not have the means to acquire the training or higher education others are able to get.

“They have difficulty with housing because it’s difficult if you’re not already an adult, or 19 or older, to sign for a loan or a lease or to get power in your name — those sorts of things.”

In addition to teaching participants core carpentry theory and skills, the program includes a job readiness component that means successful participants also complete the course with a higher level of soft skills, (communication, teamwork, time and stress management, problem-solving, and conflict resolution) than before, making them more competent, confident, and more employable.

There are a number of opportunities available to participants throughout the course of the program, including free sessions with job coaches at WorkLinks , acquisition of workplace essential skills through the Saint John Learning Exchange or the Department of Post-Secondary Training and Labour , networking opportunities with employers and community agencies and mental health outreach.

Any participants who successfully complete the learning component of the program can get an opportunity to do the eight-week work placement and earn wages where participants may be offered employment in the field, while those interested in pursuing further post-secondary education can get help in doing so with schools who teach similar trades.

“If they miss out on those opportunities early in their life, there’s so much further behind when they hit 35, for example, or 50 than a person that went to college,” continued Mackenzie.

“For anybody that’s willing to show up and commit to just being there and being open to learning and taking feedback and working with others and developing their soft skills and their technical skills. We do everything we can to support them to accomplish those goals.”

Beyond some limited media and advertising of the program, Mackenzie says they’ve had people and businesses reach out within the community to give work in exchange for experience on the job.

Mackenzie mentions Dowd Roofing in Saint John as one example of a business that contacted UYES! desperate for workers and sought help from those learning in the program.

“We’ve invited people to come in and speak. The hiring manager for Homestar has come in a couple of times and has spoken,” says Mackenzie, who added many of those opportunities have come about from the Human Development Council’s work with WorkLinks, itself a sub-component of the Saint John Learning Exchange.

Mackenzie says she’s also been continually impressed at the number of young women and non-binary people in the province eager to break into skilled trades.

“What I’ve seen in my experience is that when given that opportunity, they knock it out of the park. Like without any hesitation, I can say that the people that have shown leadership and commitment and drive and success — they’ve mostly been the young women.”

While Mackenzie says UYES! has worked to help people from all different walks of life, she is also impressed at how no matter their race, religion or gender, each can come together and form a team.

“Seeing how people focus on developing themselves and skills and how particularly during a time when we were meant to stay home and isolate — people were just excited and relieved and so happy to work together. And to find people that have a common interest — that’s been really rewarding to see,” continued Mackenzie.

“Those are the most important things and that’s what we also tried to work on is not just knowing the names of the tools and how to use them, but the work ethic, transparency, communication, just being reliable, those sorts of things because employers at this point, and not just here, but I think everywhere around the world want.”

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