• Understand your community and the needs within in. What are the issues faced by youth in your area? What services exist already to support them? How can you create an opportunity that is unique but builds upon or expands offerings already in the community?
• Understand the level of complexity in the population that you are targeting and develop the appropriate level of staff supports. Train for Trades uses an Intensive Case Management model to support the varied needs of their youth, including mental health issues, addictions, family breakdown, post-child welfare system, interactions with the criminal justice system etc.
• Ensure that staff understand how to deal with conflict effectively and have good group management skills.
• Create a quality product/deliver a quality service. You will not gain repeat business if your program does not deliver what it promises.
• Determine what kind of program is going to provide the highest chances for later employment success for the youth. Is there a skilled labour shortage in a specific area? Do not create a construction program if there are too many unemployed construction workers already. Maybe the program could be food/catering, sewing, childcare, courier services etc.
• Be very purposeful in developing successful outcomes for young people and delivering high quality work. Both have to be achieved for the project to be considered successful.
• Educate potential partners and allow adequate time to bring everyone on board (i.e. union). This will ensure that everyone understands the benefits and that all fears have been addressed.
• Start small and scale up. Learn what works and what does not. Take the time to work out any issues before trying to get too big. At the same time, plan for scale and understand that your initial resources are finite and you only have a certain amount of time to figure out how to make your program operational and sustainable. Do not simply chase funds – plan to make your program a social enterprise from the beginning.
• Ensure you have sufficient start-up funds to cover all of the unique costs.
• Reap maximum benefits – figure out the ways in which your program can contribute to the greater good while providing high quality supports for young people.
• Do not lose track of the fact that this is a support program before it is an employment program. At the same time, do not forget this is an employment program and the work should be meaningful.