YouthForce is Boys & Girls Clubs of King County’s teen employment program, offering a unique approach to workforce readiness by providing teens with employment opportunities and career development workshops while creating rewarding employment solutions for local businesses.

YouthForce University

Teens kick off the program with a series of workshops targeted to prepare them for the workforce.

Teamwork Internships

Some are placed in internships where they build employment skills alongside peers at Sounders and Seahawks home games at CenturyLink field.

Career Internships

Others build job skills, explore career paths, and begin to develop their networks in a professional career setting with local businesses.

About YouthForce

YouthForce began serving the Seattle community in 1998, partnering with local schools and businesses to provide career counseling, trainings, and mentored internships. The mission was to engage and guide low-income and underserved teens, helping them achieve their personal, academic, and career potential.

In 2007, seeking to broaden its reach, YouthForce joined Boys & Girls Clubs of King County, which has placed a new emphasis on teen programming and outreach. To date, YouthForce has offered thousands of teens paid internship opportunities through partnerships with innovative Seattle-area employers.

This fall, YouthForce will be expanding into Federal Way through a partnership and funding from KeyBank. We are excited to create new opportunities for Federal Way youth and businesses.

2017 Impact

SHIVANAH
Career Intern at Alaska Airlines

This summer, nine YouthForce interns, including Shivanah (left), were hired and placed into different sites at Alaska Airlines located at or near Sea-Tac Airport.

During her internship program, Shivanah worked closely with the Inflight Operations team. This team focuses on the policy and procedures for flight attendants in the event of an emergency.

Shivanah will graduate from high school with an Associate of Arts degree this spring as part of her involvement with the program Running Start. Next fall, she will pursue a Computer Science degree through Central Washington University’s Information Technology and Administrative Management program.

“I want to supervise people but am also interested in managing projects,” she says. “This job opened my eyes to the fact that I can do both.”

EMANUEL
Lead TeamWork Intern for Sounders FC

Emanuel works alongside 12 other Lead Interns at Sounders matches. “Since the first day we met as Leads, we just clicked,” he says. “When it’s time to work, we’re serious, but we’re family too. We have fun at every single game because of people and the environment.”

Emanuel is currently attending classes at Highline Community College, and looking to transfer and pursue his degree in biology or pre-med at a university in Washington state so he can stay close to his family. He wants to be a pediatrician.

“I’ve really come out of my shell,” he says. “I’m a shy person, but there are other interns looking up to you, so I’ve really focused on communicating well with all of them. I ask myself, ‘How can I help them get out of their comfort zone?’”

MIRACLE

Career Intern at Kaiser Permanente

As part of her internship this summer, Miracle was expected to complete and present a project to the Kaiser HR Leadership group.

“I’m independent, so I wanted to come up with my own project,” she says. “There’s a lack of informational resources for underserved youth about healthcare jobs. I decided to partner with the Boys & Girls Club to get more resources out there.” In October, she hosted a table representing Kaiser Permanente at YouthForce’s Youth Resource Fair.

This internship is an especially good fit for Miracle as she prepares for a future in medicine with hopes to attend Stanford University upon her high school graduation next year.

Learn more about YouthForce on their webpage, and read about current interns on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.