February 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 29

ePACT's Private Personal Emergency Record
of teens living in a household with a high annual income of
up to $150,000 gain valuable work experience as adolescents,
while only 21 percent of teens in low-income households are
employed. And, black teens are half as likely to work during
the summer as their white counterparts. Experts suspect systemic racism plays a role in the lower employment rates of
teens of color.
If teenagers from low-income households are less likely to
work, their chances of receiving the benefit of earning a higher salary as an adult decrease, as do their chances of escaping
poverty.
Teen programming that focuses on developing job skills and
instilling organizational values is the foundation for creating a
recruitment pipeline. The key is to design programs that facilitate the transition of younger participants from passive participants, where parents register them and they have little attendance, to active participants, such as counselors-in-training
who assist staff by instructing younger participants and earn
an incentive. The program design must carry them all the way
until they become eligible to be hired as temporary employees.
This may include junior staff positions or internships.
The teens who participated in the childtrends.org roundtable said they often weren't aware of the available programs,
but when programs were linked to school credit, they were
more aware of the opportunities. Partnering with schools to
connect class credit with participation in out-of-school time
teen programs can make a significant difference in the academic success of struggling students. A longitudinal study
conducted by sociologists Jeylan Mortimer and Jeremy Staff
found that " low-promise " students were more likely to obtain a college degree if they worked during their teens.
During a presentation at the Racial Equity in Outdoor
and Environmental Leadership in January 2019, Brion
Oaks, chief equity officer for the city of Austin, said: " I
think it's easy to talk about equity, diversity and inclusion...
but how do you live by it? Do you set goals around it? Do
you assess yourself to see how well you're doing? Do you
tie program outcomes to actually looking at how you impact equity at the end of the day? If not, then you're not
serious about it. " As park and recreation professionals, we
can be serious about equity, diversity and inclusion by engaging teenagers.
Jessica Gilzow, CPRP is the Culture and Arts Program Manager
for the Natural Resources Division at City of Austin Parks and
Recreation Department (jessica.gilzow@austintexas.gov).
Michelle Rojas is the Museums and Cultural Programs
Supervisor at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural
Center at City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department
(michelle.rojas@austintexas.gov).

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Parks
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February 2020 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2020 - Parks & Recreation