Lincoln job center helping youth gain employment amidst national decline

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Despite national reports showing a tougher job market for teens, Lincoln is bucking the trend.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Lancaster County has seen youth employment increase at a steady rate.

One reason for it may be the multiplying opportunities around the city.

Ronesha Love is the operations manager for the American Job Center in Lincoln.

It is a federally funded program that helps people needing employment; their youth program focuses on aiding young people between 16-24 with finding employment and staying employed.

They do this by facilitating paid internships, hosting workshops and providing mentorship, to name a few.

“We really want it to be real life experience. We don’t want them just, you know, sitting there organizing or, you know, just kind of that minimal stuff,” said Love.

“We really want them to be doing something that’s going to allow them to gain the experience, gain the skills that they can use the next steps of their career.”

AJC partners with the city through the Mayor’s Youth Empowerment program, which offers job opportunities across many city agencies, like Parks and Recreation.

“If they know what they want to go into, we will try to place them in an area that they’re interested in so they can put that on their resume, gain that experience,” said Love.

As for those who don’t know what they want to do yet, AJC has career planners like Kayla Brown who use assessments to help them figure it out.

“Just a little hop and a little push to get to that next step,” said Brown.

“I’m able to give them information for, say, SNAP, for instance to get them a little additional support so that they can kind of stop worrying about their barriers and work on getting employed.”

Currently, the organization has 30 interns dispersed at Lincoln businesses such as The Bay, Kawasaki, and Innovation Campus.

“We’re also giving them weekly workshops, which they’re required to attend as part of the program,” said Brown.

Holly Devnich, is a digital marketing intern at American Job Center.

She puts in about 30 hours a week in her role and says the help she gets is making a difference in her goal to become a digital marketer for big companies.

“I talk a lot with the workforce administrator, Dylan Wren,” said Devnich.

“I’m like, hey, this is what I’m seeing but I really don’t understand it. He’ll kind of sit down with me and take time out of his day to explain and show me what I need to learn.”

Her message to her peers?

“They can help you no matter what you’re trying to do, and if they can’t, they’ll point you in the right direction.”

The American Job Center focuses on youth who may have barriers preventing them from obtaining employment.

For a full list of the eligibility they screen for, you can access it here.