Youth Fellow From Southside Works Helps Connect Young People to Jobs

South­side Works is an Atlanta col­lab­o­ra­tive that helps local res­i­dents access job train­ing and pur­sue new careers. Com­prised of six Atlanta-based non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions — Emmaus House, Per Scholas, STRIVE Atlanta, the Atlanta Cen­ter for Self Suf­fi­cien­cy, the Amaz­ing Sto­ries Foun­da­tion and Gangstas to Grow­ers — South­side Works recent­ly select­ed Applette ​“Apple” Win­frey as its first-ever youth engage­ment fel­low. A grad­u­ate of SUNY Pots­dam and an Atlanta res­i­dent since 2018, Win­frey helps South­side Work’s part­ner orga­ni­za­tions bet­ter under­stand and con­nect with young peo­ple search­ing for employ­ment. The paid 10-month fel­low­ship was sup­port­ed, in part, by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

“As a young per­son, Apple brings a very impor­tant per­spec­tive to this work,” says Ade Ogun­toye, a senior asso­ciate with the Casey Foundation’s Atlanta Civic Site — a long-time investor in South­side Works’ ser­vice area. ​“Not only is she incred­i­bly pas­sion­ate about com­mu­ni­ty out­reach, but she also has valu­able insight into what’s impor­tant to young peo­ple right now and how to reach them.”

Con­nect­ing South Atlanta to Train­ing and Jobs

Winfrey’s fel­low­ship duties include:

• attend­ing com­mu­ni­ty meet­ings and speak­ing with residents;
• help­ing to devel­op spe­cial work­force and employ­ment events; and
• cre­at­ing local out­reach cam­paigns using social media, email and fliers post­ed around neighborhoods.

Win­frey recent­ly ensured young peo­ple in the Pitts­burgh com­mu­ni­ty attend­ed a recent job fair at Pitts­burgh Yards — a local hub for com­mu­ni­ty res­i­dents and entre­pre­neurs nes­tled with­in the Atlanta Belt­Line. The event allowed res­i­dents to learn about employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties and job skills train­ing avail­able through South­side Works.

To gen­er­ate inter­est in the job fair, Win­frey spear­head­ed mar­ket­ing efforts to reach youth-friend­ly spaces like com­mu­ni­ty and recre­ation cen­ters. Through one-on-one con­ver­sa­tions with res­i­dents, she found that some young peo­ple were unsure of how to find Pitts­burgh Yards or wor­ried that the job fair would have an expen­sive entry fee. She reas­sured them that not only was the event free, but it was also easy to access. ​“A lot of folks were sur­prised to dis­cov­er that Pitts­burgh Yards was right in their back­yard,” says Winfrey.

“We saw just under 50 peo­ple attend and three were offered posi­tions on the spot,” says Ogun­toye. ​“We don’t typ­i­cal­ly see many job fairs in South Atlanta, and I was very impressed with how this event came togeth­er. That was all pos­si­ble because of Apple’s ded­i­cat­ed out­reach efforts.”

Giv­en the suc­cess of the event, South­side Works hopes to offer more sea­son­al job fairs at Pitts­burgh Yards.

Build­ing Rela­tion­ships With­in a Community

Win­frey cred­its her back­ground in polit­i­cal can­vass­ing and cam­paign orga­niz­ing with prepar­ing her for the role.

“I was a lit­tle scared at first, but once I hit the streets and start­ed build­ing rela­tion­ships with­in the com­mu­ni­ty, that dis­ap­peared,” she says. ​“For any kind of com­mu­ni­ty out­reach, the best way you can get to know a neigh­bor­hood is just by spend­ing time in it. I made sure to get to know the folks at the local church­es, schools and gro­cery stores — the places peo­ple vis­it every day.”

Although Winfrey’s fel­low­ship will con­clude in Decem­ber 2023, she’s already think­ing about the future. ​“Over the past year, I’ve real­ized that I love con­nect­ing peo­ple to job or train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and get­ting involved with com­mu­ni­ty meet­ings,” says Win­frey. ​“The fel­low­ship has real­ly inspired me to con­tin­ue with that work and take on more pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment chal­lenges myself. So not only do I get to help peo­ple grow, but I also keep grow­ing, too.”

Learn more about Pitts­burgh Yards