YouthForce Builds on Expertise in Soft Skills

YouthForce NOLA has become the steward of the Working Impact Platform created by MHA Labs, leader in the field of youth empowerment through skill-building. 

First launched in 2011 to redefine how young people are valued as drivers of social and economic progress, Working Impact provides tools to help build and evaluate soft skills. 

“After careful consideration, MHA Labs is excited to announce that YouthForce NOLA was selected to be the new steward of the Working Impact Platform in recognition of its leadership role in Soft Skills Collective Impact,” said Leslie Beller, founder & former CEO of MHA Labs. “We are thrilled that YouthForce NOLA will be able to leverage the platform to expand its strengths-based approach to talent development and economic opportunity.”

Also known as power skills, 21st-century skills, non-cognitive skills, transferable skills, and Social Emotional Learning skills, soft skills are the non-technical abilities that allow someone to succeed and exceed academically, socially and professionally.  YouthForce believes that while every young person inherently possesses these skills, it is the job of youth champions  in school buildings, in business and in communities to empower those skills over time. 

“We are honored that MHA Labs selected YouthForce NOLA to become the steward of the Working  Impact Platform,” said Cate Swinburn, co-founder and president of YouthForce NOLA.  “By adding this platform to our tool kit, more of our young people will graduate from high school with the skills, confidence, and connections needed to be college- and work-ready. This is a valuable resource that we plan to make available to our partners.” 

The YouthForce collective soft skills effort focuses on six skill building blocks: Personal Mindset, Planning for Success, Social Awareness, Communication, Collaboration and Problem Solving. Mined from these building blocks, the Working Impact Hireability Assessment is a tool that supervisors, mentors, teachers and employers can use to review the soft skill performance of their participants. The scorecards produced are a great point-in-time reference of a participant’s soft skills assets, and are the driver of self confidence, empowerment and ownership of those skills. They also provide supervisors with easy-to-use tools to support conversations with employees around soft skill development.

YouthForce Internship, a program run on behalf of partner schools, incorporates the Building Blocks into the work-readiness curriculum. YouthForce interns are taught a variety of soft skill and career development topics, such as interview skills and professional attire, that sharpen and strengthen their foundations as job applicants. Later, the interns have the opportunity to internalize their soft skills while working in a fast-growing, high-wage industry. 

Jason Plain, who was a YouthForce intern in the inaugural 2015 cohort, says he continues to use and build upon the soft skills that he learned during his internship, such as office etiquette and how to communicate with his colleagues and clients.

“Writing an email was something [Youthforce coaches] showed me how to do,” added Jason, who is a multimedia sales consultant with The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate. “I hadn’t written a professional email before the internship, and now I write emails everyday. A lot of the skills I learned during my YouthForce Internship transferred to my work today.”

“Writing an email was something they [Youthforce coaches] showed me how to do,” added Jason, who is a multimedia sales consultant with The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate. “I hadn’t written a professional email before the internship, and now I write emails everyday. A lot of the skills I learned during my YouthForce Internship transferred to my work today.”