Youth Empowerment Services (YES)

Lead Partner: Sue Sanderson

Imagine leaving home with no money, no education and a young child. More than 50% of the pregnant and parenting foster teen girls who emancipate from the foster care system at 18 face these obstacles. YES for Haven provides assistance – a twenty-bed group home and training facility known as The Salvation Army’s Door of Hope Haven Program. By providing shelter, job skills training and career guidance to these teenage mothers, we significantly reduce human tragedy by helping them become self-sufficient. YES for Haven’s goal is to help these young women find a career path and life skills that allow them to support themselves and their children long-term.

SDSVP’s three-year grant to YES for Haven has provided work readiness training, career exploration and the development of a life plan for these girls, in addition to one-on-one career guidance. In the last two years, the program assisted over 44 girls. Over 61% of them have completed an internship in an area of career interest, attended vocational school or secured a job.

“Our collaboration with SDSVP and the Door of Hope is exciting and productive. These YES for Haven young women and their children need all of the help and support we can give them.”

Marilyn Stewart, Director, YES Transition Network

“With the help of SDSVP, we have set up a Career Resource Board composed of business and community leaders. This Board will provide us with valuable employment opportunities and connections as we move forward.”

Lynn Sharpe-Underwood, Administrator, Door of Hope

Breaking the Cycle of Abuse and Poverty

From the San Diego Business Journal
11/21/2005

Barbara Bry

Angela’s son Robert was born when she was 16 years old. At first, Angela, now 18, lived with Robert’s father.

Then he went to jail, and she turned to YES (Youth Empowerment Services) for Haven, a program for pregnant and parenting teens who don’t have a family for support. Without the YES program, Angela and Robert would be part of the most vulnerable population in our community at high risk of becoming homeless, living in poverty and more than likely abused or exploited.

Angela’s story is typical of the 20 young women currently in YES for Haven. Born in Mexico, Angela moved with her family to Escondido when she was 4. Sometimes she lived with her mother and father, and other times with her aunt. At the end of ninth grade, she got involved with drugs and dropped out of school. A year later, she was pregnant and moved in with her boyfriend.

“I don’t know what I would have done without this program,” Angela said. “This program has taught me how to parent, live on my own, manage my time, save money, and live with my peers.”

Petite, with long black hair, wearing a simple white camisole, jeans and white sneakers, Angela speaks articulately about her past and her future. It’s hard to believe that she has a 2-year-old son and a terrifying past.

YES for Haven, started in July 2004, is operated by a collaborative, including:

• The Salvation Army, which houses the program on its Door of Hope campus.
  
• Access, Inc., a community-based organization that provides job training, education and job placement services, as well as immigration assistance to low-income residents for more than 36 years.


• Casey Family Programs, a national organization that provides an array of services for children and youth, with foster care as its core. CFP funds research and dissemination of exemplary transition practices for foster care youth.

The concept is to provide, in one location, a wide range of services, including intensive employment readiness services and independent living skills, so that these women can get jobs and become good mothers and productive citizens. So far, 26 young women have participated in the program.

YES for Haven is one of several nonprofits funded by San Diego Social Venture Partners, a membership organization of 75 business and community leaders. Members of the group contribute their time, talent and resources to build the capacity and sustainability of not for profits in San Diego. SVP granted YES for Haven a $90,000 grant payable over three years if the program continues to meet measured outcomes and milestones.

In addition, SVP provided goods and services valued at between three to six times the cash donation. The group developed job tours, job shadowing opportunities in health care, technology and hospitality for the girls and established the Success Lab at YES for Haven complete with five Gateway computers. SVP partners have also volunteered their business expertise and guidance in developing a three-year strategic plan.

Since Angela has been involved with YES for Haven, she is looking forward to her high school graduation in December. After she graduates, she will leave YES for Haven, and has applied to three transitional living programs in San Diego County.

Youth Empowerment Services (YES)

An SDSVP grant is funding an employment readiness and internship program for pregnant and parenting teens that live in the Salvation Army’s “Door of Hope - Haven Program”. The program is a licensed group home that serves roughly 20 pregnant and parenting teens and their children.

The participants in the program are foster youth who became pregnant while residing in a group or foster home or living on the street.

SDSVP Partners are facilitating employer outreach and internship development. Through the efforts of SDSVP Partners, 20 girls have been enrolled in the YES program. Twelve girls completed job shadowing experiences at North County Health Clinic and 12 have completed an internship or are working in a job.

Through the efforts of SDSVP Partners and the Door Of Hope staff, the computer “Success Lab” is up and running with donated computers and internet services. The residents at Haven can now build resumes, search for jobs and explore areas of career interest.

“My job shadowing experience at the North County Health Clinic job was great for me. It greatly reinforced the career choice I had made in nursing. I gained hands-on experience, such as viewing a physician stitching up a wound. The fact that I was able to see that was awesome! I am more dedicated than ever before to attain my goal.”

C. L.