Workforce plants S.E.E.D. for summer

By Tony Kindelspire
The Daily Times-Call

Despite what business owners see looking outside their windows, Workforce Boulder County would like them to take a moment and think about this summer.

Seriously.

Specifically, Workforce officials want business owners to consider how their firms can help out area youth this summer.

This is the first year of Workforce’s new “S.E.E.D.” program — it stands for Summer Employment and Enterprise Development. Targeted at youth aged 16 to 21, the program is designed to put young people to work for four to six weeks this summer in a job or business that is not considered traditional summer employment, such as being a lifeguard or flipping burgers.

Shadowing someone in a career field they were considering could be a real eye-opener for a young person, said Pam Madden, coordinator of the S.E.E.D. program.

“What is it really like to be a software engineer? What is really like to be in a hospital setting?” she said.

The S.E.E.D. program works two ways: The first is for employers to offer employment for a youth for four to six weeks at their place of business.

“The company pays $1,000 to Workforce and then Workforce pays the youth, pays workmen’s compensation and all of that,” said Madden, adding that Workforce will screen the applicants and provide them with rudimentary training on things like phone and e-mail etiquette, having the proper dress and attitude, and so on.

The fact that the youth must undergo the training on their own time should help weed out the less enthusiastic applicants, she said.

“They’re motivated; they understand the parameters of the program and what is going to be required,” Madden said. Each company, she said, will ultimately make the decision on whether they accept a particular applicant.

The second way a company can participate is to provide a Gift Work Scholarship for one or more youths. The cost to a company is the same, $1,000, but this would be a more appropriate option for certain types of companies.

Madden said she has talked with an elder-care facility that could never afford to hire a young person themselves but would be thrilled to have one come in and work under a scholarship.

She said the next 90 days will be important to the success of the S.E.E.D. program.

“Our goal is to get a commitment from employers, really by the March time frame,” said Madden. “The reason for us is we really want to get an idea of how many jobs we’ll have to offer the kids.”

Last summer, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment notified the various Workforce centers around the state that grant money was available if it was targeted at finding summer employment for youth.

“My job was to help them conceive of the ‘big idea,’” said Shane DeRolf, president of Campaign Coalition, a social marketing and advertising agency in Boulder. “I came up with a couple of concepts, and we all felt that the Boulder County S.E.E.D. idea was the biggest idea of them all.”

Madden wrote the grant proposal explaining the S.E.E.D. program, the first of its kind in the state, and Workforce was awarded $110,000, more than a third of the total amount of money available.

“The idea here is by doing what we’re doing with Boulder County S.E.E.D., we’re hoping to provide Boulder County youth with work opportunities and exposure that they may not normally get in the typical summer employment market,” said DeRolf.

Madden and DeRolf began going around last quarter speaking to various economic groups, letting them know about the program and how employers could participate, and now Workforce is hoping to get firm commitments from companies willing to be part of the program.

Tony Kindelspire can be reached at 303-684-5291, or by e-mail at tkindelspire@times-call.com.