By

Dianne Anderson // —

Some people pay a lot of money for career workshops on how to get a good paying job and move up to the top of their game.

Youth advocates, Joseph Williams and Terrance Stone, give their hot tips away for free. The only thing the community has to do now is show up.

With decades as an employment specialist, Joseph Williams is usually in jobs mode, and this summer is no different.

He said good decent paying jobs are playing out in the Inland Empire over the next year, including the county’s projected demand occupations, manufacturing and advanced manufacturing, logistics and transportation, public utilities, and healthcare. Construction trades are also coming in stronger for those with skills.

Almost all jobs require some education and training, but there are plenty of options.

Pending approval by the Workforce Board, and the Board of Supervisors, the county is targeting 200 out of school youth to fill gaps left by the now defunct SBETA program. Other job training opportunities are coming up for San Bernardino city residents and currently out of school youth, ages 16-24, in July.

Williams is also encouraged with $3 million to be spent at the county level, opening hundreds of entry-level opportunities for young adults through several countywide programs.

Getting parents and youth aware of how to make the most of the job market by expanding their base is the focus of his new book.

He said that understanding social connections to the workforce is key for the community. It always goes back to not only what they know, but who they know, to access best career opportunities.

“74% of jobs found [are in] the hidden job market of people talking and people networking. If everyone in your network is unemployed, you’re going to have a hard time finding a job,” Williams said.

Youth can connect to his Americorps job center for guidance and resources, and community colleges have a great lineup of training courses, he said.

This week, he kicks off Rialto Summer Bridge to Success program with about 70 youth where he is covering some tried and true principles of the “7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens.” The program also works with local parents learn better ways to talk with their kids.

In July, Terrance Stone, founder and CEO of Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy, follows up with his gang intervention programming.

On Tuesday, June 27, both Williams and Stone are facilitating a special Town Hall meeting with the police training institute. The “Fight Crime, Invest in Kids” Town Hall will be held from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Boys & Girls Club of San Bernardino, located at 1180 West 9th Street, San Bernardino.

The following day, the dialogue with youth and police for a day-long training where both sides can be open and up front.

Stone said they intend to bring the discussion wider the following day, when youth and police talk it out in a day-long training. High school age kids will also open up about the way law enforcement deals with community.

He knows that a lot of kids these days have anger issues. At one time, he remembers being one of them, running the streets without purpose or direction. Today, he teaches from personal experience.

Stone said the Town Hall is also important because freshly graduating police need community policing training to better understand inner city kids.

“That’s why we’re working with the new graduates of the police academy so they won’t come out all gung-ho,” he said.

He feels that police also need help in develop relationships with the community they serve, and to cut down on police brutality.

“Or, even with our kids, that respect has to work both ways,” he said.

On June 24, YVYLA hosts their Fourth Annual Youth Conference at Splash Kingdom in Redlands, a project of their SMAART (Successfully Motivating African Americans through Resiliency Training) program. The event, free for youth, runs 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., located at 1101 California Street, Redlands.

Among several participants, IEHP will be on site, along with representatives from San Bernardino Valley College, San Bernardino City Unified School District, California After School Program, and A. Majadi of the Boys and Girls Club of San Bernardino.

Stone said the community is in for a good time. It will be will be fun, upbeat and entertaining.

“We already have close to 300 kids signed up for this conference,” he said. ” We have workshops, mental health, physical health, healthy eating, motivational speakers. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger.”

For more information about the programs, call Youth Action Partnership at (909) 381-1405 or Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy at 909-723-1695

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