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Fall, 2005
Youth
Discuss Policy and Plan Action at Leadership Academy
Should employers pay for health care? Should the minimum wage be
raised? How can potential hazards be identified in the workplace?
A group of concerned citizens recently grappled with these
and other pressing questions relating to workplace health and
safety.
The
participants were not voters, politicians, or business people,
but rather 25 teen-aged participants in the first Young Worker
Leadership Academy (YWLA).
In
February, 2005, these young people, drawn from a pool of 90 applicants,
gathered at the two-day Academy in Anaheim, sponsored by the
California Partnership for Young Worker Health and Safety. The
Academy was run by a dynamic team of trainers from the California
Center for Civic Participation, U.C. Berkeley's Labor Occupational
Health Program (LOHP), and LOHP's counterpart at UCLA, the Labor
Occupational Safety and Health Program (LOSH). The team included
peer educators from both Los Angeles and Berkeley.
A young worker
was injured in the time it has taken the reader to get this far,
and another is injured every 40 seconds in the U.S. To address
this unacceptable danger to youth, the YWLA sought to teach youth
about workplace health and safety and their rights on the job,
but, even further, to empower them to participate in improving
workplace safety. Academy youth were encouraged through various
workshops to think about how to minimize the chances of getting
hurt on the job, and to plan ways to take their understanding
and ideas back to their communities to promote young worker safety.
Diverse
Group
Perhaps the
most exciting aspect of the Academy, according to organizer Diane
Bush of LOHP, was the diversity of backgrounds among the participants
and their enthusiasm for hearing the perspectives of youth with
different opinions and life experiences.
The discussions
brought together white suburban youth, Mezteca youth from agricultural
communities in the Central Valley, African-American youth in
college-prep programs, and young activists from L.A. and Berkeley.
They applied
as teams from the following organizations: the 49er Regional
Occupational Program in Auburn; Se’e Savi in Madera; the
Center for Advanced Research and Technology in Clovis; College
Bound San Diego from San Diego; the Youth Evaluation Project
formed by LOHP; and the Peer Education Project from LOSH. Adult
mentors for each group also attended and participated in separate
sessions to share ideas for supporting their youth teams in follow-up
community activities.
Participants
rated the Academy highly, but were a little exhausted by the
packed agenda—and wanted more free time to spend together!
They reported learning about the laws that protect them in the
workplace and about how to speak up and respond to problems on
the job. The teams suggested that the experience sparked new
thinking about how to reach their peers with this information—ideas
turned into actions after the Academy. Participants developed
and presented materials to their peers during California’s
Safe Jobs for Youth Month in May, with projects including a video,
a week-long lunch-period education series, and a poster contest.
With new funding
from the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers’ Compensation,
the group plans to hold two Academies during the 2005–06
academic year, one each in Northern and Southern California.
For information about next year’s academies, contact LOHP's
Diane Bush: dbush@berkeley.edu or
phone (510) 643-2424.
Adapted from Center for Occupational and
Environmental Health (COEH) Newsletter, Bridges
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