Rooted In Resilience: Youth and Young Adults’ Experiences In a Community-Based Employment Program

Background and Purpose: Work-based learning and employment services may improve labor market outcomes for young people facing employment barriers, yet less is known about how participants experience community-based workforce programs and how they become connected to them. This qualitative study examined a community-based employment training model that provides 100 paid internship hours to youth and young adults ages 16-28 in an urban area of Northern California. Study questions asked: (1) How do participants experience the program’s job-readiness and internship model? and (2) How do participants become connected to this resource, and what barriers do they identify for other young people?

Methods: Phase 1 data included 14 one-on-one semi-structured interviews with program completers (7 summer general employment participants and 7 year-long technology-focused participants). The summer track included workshops on resume development, career exploration, interview preparation, banking and taxes, workplace communication, and time management, followed by internships matched to participant interests. The year-long track included the same organizational supports plus foundational computer-skills training; participants then applied to three partner employers for internships. Researchers also conducted observations of summer 2025 training workshops. Data were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Two researchers compared and refined codes and themes, and findings were shared with the community partner for feedback.

Results: Participants in the summer track were generally younger and more likely to be in high school or college, whereas year-long participants were older, mostly out of school, and often reported unemployment lasting more than six months. Four themes emerged. First, most participants learned about the program through friends and family, with fewer referrals through school-based events, suggesting that access to employment resources is partly shaped by existing social connections. Second, workplace relationships strongly influenced first-job experiences; positive supervisor feedback increased motivation, confidence, and interest in future employment. Third, case managers and the community-based organization functioned as important sources of support and advocacy, especially for younger participants navigating a first formal job. Fourth, year-long participants described the program as interrupting discouragement and self-doubt from prolonged job searching by giving them an opportunity to demonstrate skills to employers and to themselves, strengthening self-esteem and future orientation. Participants also identified transportation, limited awareness of community resources, and discomfort with help-seeking and self-advocacy as barriers that may exclude other youth from similar opportunities.

Conclusions and Implications: Community-based programs may enhance job readiness through both paid work-based learning and relationship-centered support. But findings also highlight how structural inequities and reliance on informal social networks can shape unequal access to workforce opportunities for marginalized youth. For social work practice and policy, findings highlight the value of case management, supervisor mentoring, and outreach strategies that do not rely primarily on informal social networks. Program development should also reflect age-related differences in initial job training needs. In the current labor market, as educational pathways lengthen and transitions to stable employment are increasingly delayed, workforce programming may need to extend its concept of “young adulthood” into the late 20s and early 30s.