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Monday, December 12, 2005
Testing the job market
Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||||||||||||||
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Also on this page: YOU THINK GRANTS | |||||||||||||
Sitting in a room just above the street in Riverton Park, there's a scene best described as organized chaos. Akram Abdullah, lanky even in an Atlanta Falcons jersey, is hungry. On the other side of the room Larry Thath has gotten hold of someone's thin metal bracelets. Holding them to his ear, he jokes, "I'm Mr. T!" Meanwhile, Lakena Ok is talking about "guinea pigs." The group of teenagers needs guinea pigs, or test subjects, for the one-of-a-kind research project they are conducting on jobs in the Portland area. Specifically, what do young people, especially those from immigrant families, have to look forward to in the job market? What started as a casual observation about immigrants not being able to make their way up the ladder took shape into an idea, and, more importantly, got some funding. This fall the group was awarded a grant of nearly $10,000 for the project from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, or CIRCLE. Over the next year they will be surveying students at Portland's high schools about where they work, how much time they spend there and why they do it. They'll tie that in with interviews of area companies to find out exactly what they look for in younger employees. But at a recent meeting, this group of young researchers is trying to figure out how to give the survey a test run. Six of them, from the city's different high schools, sit around a table in a small room in an apartment at Riverton Park. Among other questions they have: Why is a test run important? "To perfect the survey," Thath, 16, says in an almost confident tone. "After we give the survey out to the guinea pigs, we can give it to students," Ok, 16, said. It's all information they've been over before, but staying focused on a project that will take a year can be difficult. Fortunately the group has help. They're part of the Peer Leader program operated by the People's Regional Opportunity Program, or PROP. Anna Allocco, one of the coordinators at Riverton, has been guiding the group. Stepping up to a white board, Allocco draws a timeline to show just how much work is ahead: testing the survey, distributing it in schools, following up with student interviews, meetings with companies, presenting the data. Still, as the night's conversation staggers between music, problem teachers and the project itself, Allocco provides encouragement. "This is what people do when they make surveys," she said. "They're very conceptual." And as playful as the conversation gets at times, this is a group that's not afraid to jump on the sensitive questions like perceptions of race and class. Some of them were members of a team that created a short film called "A Day in the Life of Riverton Park: The Movie." It was another idea brought to life: how to show the rest of the city that living in Riverton Park is more than people's misconceptions about kids and families just trying to get by. That project was possible because of a grant from YOUTHINK, a youth philanthropy group in Portland. Their research this time will tread in those same waters, trying to reconcile perceptions with reality. Young people coming from Riverton Park have any number of preconceived ideas to deal with, said Samantha Serfes, 17. When it comes to jobs, people may lump together what school you go to, where you live and the color of your skin, she said. The problem for immigrants is that they often get by week to week on a paycheck, so no one is going to raise questions or complain, said Mary Li, 16. What this group is worried about is being shut out from high-paying jobs and being able to create the contacts needed to start a career. "We're capable of doing the same things as adults," Ok, 16, said. "Why not give us a chance?" "You want to try working at a warehouse?" asks Eddie Thy, 16. "No!" she shoots back. "Because I'm a female." No doubt there's a lot of work ahead, and at the very least plenty more nights like this. Though things can get off course at times, these students are determined. And that's what matters most. Again joking about the survey results, Thy asks, "Why even give it to people?" "That's our purpose," Serfes, says. "What are we going to do, keep it to ourselves?" Staff Writer Justin Ellis can be contacted at 791-6380 or at:
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