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Editor's Note: Our guest blogger today is Patricia D. Gill, Senior Program Associate, National Collaborative on Workforce & Disability for Youth at the Institute for Educational Leadership’s Center for Workforce Development. She directs RAMP (the Ready to Achieve Mentoring Program), a high tech career-focused mentoring program for youth with disabilities involved with or at-risk of becoming involved with the juvenile justice system. Today she reflects on the program, its outcomes, and what has been learned over its first few years.*

As the Ready to Achieve Mentoring Program (RAMP) enters its third year, community partnerships have emerged as an important component to making the program work in all communities.  With support from the Institute for Educational Leadership, the 12 RAMP sites around the country provide career-focused mentoring for youth with disabilities who are at-risk of or currently involved in the juvenile justice system. Unfortunately, as youth with disabilities are highly overrepresented in the juvenile justice system, all youth with disabilities – especially those with learning disabilities or mental health needs – are at-risk of becoming involved in the system. The RAMP programs place special emphasis on engaging youth with disabilities with a history of high truancy rates, low grades, or school discipline incidents.

Through a mix of education, employer, and community partnerships, RAMP sites have succeeded in providing career-focused mentoring to these youth with outstanding results! In the first year, 95% of the youth enrolled in the program engaged in evidenced-based practices (developing an individualized plan and/or meeting career-focused goals), 95% stayed out of the juvenile justice system, 92% stayed in school, 91% successfully completed the first year of the program, and 71% showed improved attendance in school. None of these results could have been achieved without the many community partners of each site.

Although all RAMP sites provide mentors, weekly career-focused meetings, peer-supported goal setting, and career exploration opportunities to their youth, it is the unique community partnerships that allow them to adapt to the character of their community and the specific interests of their youth. In each community, a broad range of partners from government agencies, schools, employers, and community-based organizations come together to provide the exposure and connections that youth need to successfully transition from high school to the world of work!

RAMP sites partner with schools to identify eligible youth, share space, and even co-plan for complementary school and program activities. For example, at Families Together/YOUTH POWER!, in Albany, NY, RAMP partners with the principal’s cabinet at Cohoes Middle School in several ways. During its weekly meetings, this leadership team  – composed of the principal, vice principals, school counselors, and others – identifies youth who are good RAMP candidates. The principal shares youth’s RAMP goals in his weekly update email to all teachers so they can support youth in achieving them. The Regional Center for Independent Living operating in Wayny County, NY co-plans with teachers so that the classroom activities coincide with RAMP program phases. For example, a math lesson might connect to a RAMP financial planning workshop or a “how to read your paycheck” session. Finally, Humanim in Baltimore, MD works to have RAMP career exploration activities included as part of the transition section of youth’s school Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), which are mandatory for all students eligible for special education.

Similarly, RAMP sites have worked with employer partners to provide mentors, guest speakers, and the worksite visits that are critical to career-focused mentoring. Initially, Youth Services in Brattleboro, VT partnered with Chroma, a company that manufactures special lenses used in medical photography for a site tour. By the end of the tour, the tour guide (who shared stories of his own difficult adolescence with the youth) offered an internship to a RAMP youth. The Chroma relationship eventually developed into jobs for two youth and paid time off for any Chroma employee while mentoring RAMP youth. Peckham in Lansing, MI engaged multiple employer partners as guest speakers, as well as “judges” for the youth’s end-of-the-year projects related to their chosen careers. In Florida, The Able Trust, the state lead, connected with NASA, Walt Disney World, and Hyatt Hotels to provide site visits (including a space shuttle launch), meeting space (for a robotics camp at Disney), and job shadowing experiences (in several hotels) for the youth at the two Florida RAMP sites in Jacksonville (Independent Living Resource Center or Northeast Florida) and Lake City (Florida Crown Workforce Development Board).

Last but not least, RAMP sites have worked with a variety of community partners to provide additional work experiences and critical support services for RAMP youth. At Chemung County Children’s Integrated Services in New York, the AIM Independent Living Center partnered with the RAMP site on a community art project where a RAMP youth designed a mural and then led younger youth in creating it. The AIM center provides family resources, assistive technology, and a career center for RAMP participants. Cerebral Palsy of Colorado in Denver works with the Wings of the Rockies Museum and Open Media Foundation to provide hands-on work experiences for youth interested in careers in aviation and media production. The Louisiana State University Health Services Center – Human Development Center in New Orleans partners with two other career-related programs for youth, Start on Success and Bridges from School to Work, to provide internships and jobs with local employers for RAMP youth as they transition from high school.

To learn more about building effective community partnerships to support youth in transition to adulthood, see the following resources:

•  Guideposts for Employers Success
•  High School/High Tech Program Guide: A Comprehensive Transition Program Promoting Careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math for Youth with Disabilities (See the section on “Partnerships and Collaborations Are Key to Success at Both the State and Local Levels” starting on page 7-8 in Chapter 7)
• Paving the Way to Work: A Guide to Career-Focused Mentoring (See the section on “Effective Community Partnerships” starting on page 5-5 in Chapter 5).
• Making the Connections: Growing and Supporting New Organizations–Intermediaries

*This post has been slightly modified from its original form. View the original post on the RAMP blog.