RAFT and work2future connect to focus on community support for youths seeking employment. logo

August 31, 2015 – Resource Area for Teaching (RAFT) has employed two work2future participants as retail and kit production assistants for their San Jose, California location. The work2future Foundation offers programs funded by the Santa Clara County, which provides young adults ages 16-21 career training services designed to get them employed, enrolled, or both. These innovative programs serve over 300 young adults each year throughout Santa Clara County, while providing job search assistance, paid internships, tutoring, and skill upgrades.

“We offer career coaching, job developer consultations, vocational assessments, and much more,” says Cassandra Nash, Youth Office Specialist at work2future. “We’re here to help our young people excel, and RAFT’s mission really coincides with our own mission.”

RAFT’s first work2future intern, Richard Lewis, was hired in 2008, and still works for RAFT today.

“I’ve loved working at RAFT for the past six years,” says Lewis. I’ve been able to learn hands-on skills that will stay with me for a lifetime. The work2future program was really a stepping stone to help me learn how to successfully enter into the workforce.

The second work2future intern recently hired by RAFT is 16-year old Raina Kennedy. Raina is a Bay Area native and high school student, who applied for work2future’s job program and interned at RAFT for four weeks before she was hired.

“work2future helped point me in the right direction on what I want to do as a future career, which could be either in childcare or social work. So RAFT is really a great place for me to start,” says Kennedy.

Committed to hands-on learning, RAFT has long focused on supporting teachers and the way youth learn best, with hands-on activities. By doing so, RAFT connects with other non-profit organizations with similar goals, such as work2future, who’s appeal includes providing each youth with a case manager to help them succeed. work2future Case Managers also track hours worked, gather time cards, and resolve issues so that youth participants and work site providers have a mutually beneficial experience.

“We had a need for help and really wanted to further the reach of our impact by working with an organization that has the same mission of helping out diverse communities, especially when it comes to enabling our youth to excel,” says Ofelia Delgadillo, Site Manager at RAFT.

RAFT’s new hire will work on a part-time schedule and learn from RAFT’s most senior educational and retail staff.

About RAFT
RAFT believes the best way to spark the love of learning for the next generation of thinkers, innovators, problem-solvers, and creators, is through hands-on learning. A nonprofit organization since 1994, RAFT serves 12,000 educators each year who teach over 900,000 students. Find out more about RAFT and how to get involved at http://www.raft.729solutions.com.