Tuesday September 29, 2015
By Jackie Burns
Zakaria Abdulle faced some huge hurdles trying to figure out how to become his family’s “beacon of hope” as he grew up in the community housing complexes of Toronto’s Lawrence Heights neighbourhood.
“Growing up, my friends and I, we never had terms like ‘meaningful employment’ in our vernacular because we realized we didn’t really know the ‘somebodies’ of the world — and we were going to have to start from the bottom.”
But when a mentor in his community took the time to get to know and encourage Abdulle two years ago, a world of opportunity seemed to open up for the 25-year-old. He now studies history and political science at the University of Toronto and is recognized as one of the top 100 youth leaders in Canada.
“He told me I was a diamond in the rough. His words gave me so much encouragement.”
Abdulle spoke passionately about the power of making these kinds of meaningful connections on Wednesday at the launch of netWORKS, a youth-focused networking and mentoring initiative for the Greater Toronto Area that taps into companies and organizations from across the region.
The pilot project is a partnership between United Way Toronto & York Region, CivicAction and tenthousandcoffees.com, an online hub that connects young people seeking career opportunities with professionals in the field.
With more than 80,000 youth in the city of Toronto alone struggling to find employment, creative action needed to be taken.
“This is one of the most pressing challenges facing our region today,” said Susan McIsaac, president and CEO, United Way Toronto & York Region.
“Our strategy is really focused on leveling the playing field and creating opportunity for all youth, but in particular for those who are facing multiple barriers. It’s a fantastic example of how, with technology, we can move the needle.”
Helping job-hungry millennials make those life-changing connections was Dave Wilkins’ mission when he founded tenthousandcoffees.com 18 months ago. The 27-year-old saw a disconnect between ambitious youth looking to kickstart their careers and seasoned professionals who were eager for insight from the younger generation. Neither seemed to know how to make the first move.
“It’s an unfortunate love story,” said Wilkins, who has made it his mission to bring both sides together. He said networking and mentorship will have a far greater success rate than job fairs and recruitment events. “If you ask for a job, you get advice, but if you ask for advice, you get a job.”
And with stats that suggest 80 per cent of jobs are not actually posted, but instead found through conversations with people you already know, Wilkins said getting access to these people is key to opening doors for the next generation.
Accenture employee Luke Speers is part of the first wave of mentors participating in the netWORKS pilot project and encourages more professionals to do the same. “It’s not a huge burden on our side to show what we know,” he said. “You can make the time.”
As a work-plan and HR analyst on the telecom side, Speers said it could really be eye-opening for young people to see a variety of different career options. “There are a million jobs out there you’ve never heard of,” he said.
Ontario Minister of Child and Youth Services Tracy MacCharles praised the netWORKS initiative at Wednesday’s launch, saying the new-age strategy will compliment the province’s Enhanced Youth Action Plan, a $55-million investment over three years.
“Our government is very proud to stand with you as we all move forward together to develop the skills and power of young people,” she said. “If we don’t engage our young people, we don’t promote youth employment, we do risk having more disengaged young people and great talents being wasted.”
CivicAction CEO Sevaun Palvetzian said the Toronto region isn’t alone in facing the challenge of youth unemployment. “Around the world today, as many as one in four young people is not in education, is not in employment, is not in training,” she said. “We wanted to find new ways to tackle this old and big problem from some new angles.”
While Palvetzian said while the social costs of disengaged youth are more obvious, there is also a hard economic price to pay if young people don’t find their way: studies show, she noted, that it can cost more than $1 million per person over the course of their lifetime if they don’t get plugged into the working world.