2017 CIIP Program Book 2017 CIIP Program Book | Page 54

Community Partner: YouthWorks
Intern: Indu Radhakrishnan
Site Supervisors: Jon Smeton
What is YouthWorks?
Baltimore City’s YouthWorks summer jobs
program will match young people between the
ages of 14 and 21 to five-week work
experiences with private sector, nonprofit, and
city and stare government employers.
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Supervised six YouthWorkers in the
creation, administration, and presentation
of citywide YouthWorker surveys
Interviewed worksite supervisors at 30
YouthWorks sites throughout Baltimore
Assisted in the administration of special
YouthWorks services and pilot programs
Developed presentation and program
materials for a wide range of projects
"The YouthWorks experience, like most great experiences, is what you make of it. After
being a Special Projects Intern with YouthWorks for a summer, I can say that I have been
to over 40 unique businesses and organizations in the beautiful City of Baltimore, I have
interviewed 30 site supervisors, I have helped 40 kids to get glasses, I have built wonderful
relationships with six enterprising and charismatic YouthWorkers, and I have definitively
changed at least one life – my own.
YouthWorks serves around 8,000 youth between the ages of 14 and 21 in Baltimore every
summer. Looking at the number, the immensity of its impact and the scope of its reach
might be difficult to conceptualize. But over the course of the summer, through three
weeks of site visiting all over Baltimore, I quickly learned just how deeply YouthWorks
affects the city in every conceivable way. In its sheer enormity of impact in Baltimore,
YouthWorks is unique among the CIIP internships.
Moreover, being a Special Projects Intern put me in the position to be part of improving
the program. YouthWorks is one of the rare organizations that invests actively in
improvement, and I was privileged enough to be placed directly in the department that is
responsible for the development of special services and projects. Everything I did this
summer felt important – I knew that I was either directly helping kids or I was helping to
improve the ways that we help kids. There is a sense that we can always do better, that
we can always serve our youth in new ways, that there are always ways to improve and
grow, and it is a spirit that I will certainly take with me.
Few workplaces will give you as much independence and control as YouthWorks – what
you do with that is up to you. Jon Smeton, the Special Projects Coordinator who acted as
my direct supervisor, allowed me incredible freedom to determine how I wanted to direct
the YouthWorkers assigned to me and gave me countless opportunities to help him with
his amazing and impactful projects. Working with him has equipped me to see the world
in a new light, to think critically and creatively about the ways that good work is done.
But all of that being said, by far the greatest thing about YouthWorks is that it brought me
six wonderful young people, each one of whom has become dear to me. The work I have
done as a supervisor for my YouthWorkers, the relationships I have built, is fulfilling in a
way that few things are. Gaining the trust and affections of my YouthWorkers was
challenging but worthwhile – these are relationships that will last me long after CIIP is
over. If you want your life to be changed in the best possible way, choose YouthWorks!"
-Indu
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