The court order was the reason Hardin found himself in the Equality Center’s Workforce Development program, which targets Lowell’s most at-risk or violent high school dropouts ranging from 16 to 24 years of age. The program is a combination of workforce training, education, and case management, and it is designed with the concept of relapse at its core, said Gregg Croteau, the center’s executive director.
“We know if we’re going to be a program that is going to work with the most difficult young people, the most disengaged young people in the city, we have to know that it might not take,’’ Croteau said. “It’s not necessarily just a second chance. It could be five, six, seven chances before they get to that.’’
Although the center has had workforce training for eight of its 12 years, the current modelwas adopted within the last year and a half, and serves approximately 100 young people. Of those, 82 percent have criminal records or pending court cases; 47 percent are involved in gang activity; 33 percent have no stable housing; and 25 percent are parents, Croteau said.
Once in the program, the young people work with a “transitional coach,’’ or a case manager; are required to enroll in the center’s GED program; and are assigned a maintenance job at the center, said Sako Long, supervisor of the Workforce Development program. Participants are paid a starting wage of $8 an hour, and are allowed to choose job training in painting, construction, or culinary arts only after they show up to their maintenance job for 30 consecutive days and pass “soft skills’’ performance reviews, ranging from maintaining proper eye contact to learning how to talk to a supervisor.
