Work-Based Learning Partnership Expands

The Communities In Schools and Future Focused Education work-based learning collaboration in Santa Fe is now just over a year old. In the 2020-21 school year, our joint initiative which focuses on Communities In Schools students who attended Capital High School, made 10 internship placements with 5 employers. In Summer 2021 we built on this foundation, making 3 placements with 3 employers: Santa Fe Children's Museum, River Source, and Presbyterian Center for Community Health. All three interns and mentors reported being "very satisfied" with their overall experience, with one intern being offered a job in their field of interest at Forest Stewards Guild that resulted from a glowing recommendation and warm hand-off from their intern mentor. In early October we were pleased to hire Lucia Duncan as our first Intern and Alumni Director. Lucia has hit the ground running in Santa Fe and has been actively pushing work forward to recruit more students and connect with a wider circle of businesses to offer internship opportunities for Santa Fe youth.

Pandemic Relief and Work-Based Learning

Recently, the Santa Fe City Council heard public input from community groups about pandemic relief from the American Rescue Plan. The city of Santa Fe will receive $15 million over the next three years to assist with recovery in our community.

Lucia Duncan and Mike May, Director of Workforce Learning for Future Focused Education attended the City Council meeting to encourage the Council to provide more financial support for youth internships.

Mike shared with the Council that the focus of the Communities In Schools/Future Focused Education partnership and goal is to place more students in internships as a strategy to engage them in career pathways that meet their interests and provide real life work experience.

“We are now focusing on scaling our partnership program in the Santa Fe area to really take advantage of the goodwill towards creating pathways for young people as they transition out of high school, and to help them more intentionally move into training, education and the workforce,” he said.

Lucia shared that, “Everyone needs support, and especially youth that struggle with financial hardship or other hardships in their lives.” “It can be a transformative experience for them to have internships that will lead them towards a career that they are excited about and can be successful and help support their families.”