Employment Partnership Program

Footsteps to the Future Exciting New Employment Partnership Program

In an effort to assist our community’s young women who have aged out of the foster care system and are entering the work force, Footsteps to the Future is creating a collaborative, cooperative partnership with local employers. The common goal of this partnership is to develop quality employees who demonstrate good work habits and become reliable assets to their employers. Despite the typical learning curve that teens and young adults experience when first entering the workforce, with the help of employers, mentors, and other advisers, they can quickly adapt, conduct themselves properly, and do their jobs in an exemplary manner.

Mentoring especially has proven to be a powerful and successful tool on and off the job. That has certainly been the positive experience among foster youth who have participated in a unique local program pioneered by Footsteps to the Future. As the Employment Partnership Program unfolds, Footsteps is ready and willing to provide mentoring and other assistance in order to develop quality employees from among the community’s foster youth.

The concept is quite simple. If an employer has a position available and Footsteps has a viable candidate to be interviewed, an initial contact is made. A Footsteps mentor will assist that candidate in key areas such as creating a resume and lending advice on appropriate dress and behavior for the job interview. If the candidate is hired, the mentor will then routinely follow up to assure mutual success and satisfaction for both the employer and the employee.

Most of the young people participating in Footsteps programs attend high school or college while working, so employers are asked to do their best to devise schedules that takes classes, homework, and extracurricular activities into account.

The employer also is encouraged to appoint an on-the-job mentor —often a supervisor or other adult assigned to train the new employee — who can supplement the Footsteps mentor’s role in counseling and communicating with the mentee and thus ensure a positive work experience for both parties. This only reinforces the mutual goal of helping local businesses develop quality employees while offering foster youth a safe, productive, and nurturing work environment.


Here’s a hypothetical situation illustrating how the Partnership might work: A few weeks after she’s hired, Susie shows up late one day and appears sleepy on the job. Another day, she’s seen texting on her cellphone and going online for personal business. The final straw is the day she doesn’t show up at all and doesn’t call to explain why. Instead of firing Susie, however, her on-the-job mentor contacts her Footsteps mentor and they discuss a reasonable resolution — with Susie’s input, too, and pledge to improve her behavior. On a more positive note, there are times when an on-the-job mentor will call an employee’s Footsteps mentor to report praiseworthy behavior. In both situations the Partnership encourages a genuine win-win situation.

I invite you and your company to join us in this innovative collaborative effort to improve our local employment market. Please contact Judi Woods, Executive Director of Footsteps to the Future, with your questions, comments, and suggestions. Together we can help our community’s foster youth on their path toward self-sufficiency and personal and professional success.




Judi Woods
Founder and Executive Director
Footsteps to the Future
239 275-5834
judiwoods2@earthlink.net
www.footstepstothefuture.org