Listen: We do our Safe Streets, Healthy Kids campaign during the summer because it’s a unique time of the year for youth — they’re not in school, causing them to face decisions about how to fill their days. Parents can influence how their children spend their time, but at the end of the day, it’s hard to convince anybody to do something they don’t want to. Thus, the most successful summer activities for youth engage them on their own terms. Think of it in terms of opportunity cost — for every choice they make, they’re not make an infinite other choices. So the programming should be dynamic, or introduce them to an unexplored world, or, stimulate their mind in new ways. Or perhaps most effective? Do all those other things, and then pay them.
This week, we’ll be considering employment as a Safe Haven, getting those first steps into the scary and thrilling world of adult employment. And where’s a better place to start than the first day? Listen, as the teens you’ll be hearing from throughout this week walk us through those first jittery moments:
Awkwardness. We all know what it is, we’re all capable of it, and on the first day of work, there’s no avoiding it: see podcast below.
Keep coming back all week! You’ll hear much more of each voice you heard in these pieces, and learn how things progressed from the first anxious moments on the job.