KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
For at-risk youth, a job can be their ticket out of poverty and an important way to keep them off the streets and off of drugs.
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For three years AMS Fulfillment and the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station have partnered to provide job opportunities for local high schoolers through the local Youth Activities League Center in Val Verde.
AMS CEO Ken Wiseman and YAL Supervising Deputy Brian Rooney decided that the Valencia-based warehouse and distribution center would be the ideal place to provide youth with essential workforce experience.
“We were talking about how one of the most difficult groups to get employment is at-risk youth,” Wiseman said. “In many cases it would be to put food on the family table, and critical things, paying rent and things like that. It was summer, so school was out and the kids were available. Initially we decided we would create a few positions and we would take five kids in.”
Rooney chose some promising teens from the SCV YAL, and coached them for their interviews with AMS.
“In came Deputy Rooney with five very well-dressed kids,” Wiseman said. “We hired all five of them. By the end of the summer we had 17 kids from the Santa Clarita YAL working for us.”
Each year, AMS continues to employ youths from the Youth Activities League. This year, approximately 20 teenagers have been employed through the program.
Wiseman said the success rate has been very high as the teens adjust to an adult work environment, with most of them performing warehouse work, scanning and preparing client merchandise for transport.
The local YAL is one of 17 created by the Sheriff’s Youth Foundation in Los Angeles County.
Rooney said that the entire community is grateful to Wiseman and AMS for providing opportunities to the young workers.
“The ultimate goal of this program is to make kids ready for adulthood,” Rooney said. “A lot of them are working and giving money straight to Mom and Dad to help with bills.”
Both Rooney and Wiseman cited one particular student worker as an example of success: Raul Domrique, who recently turned 18, and started working at AMS when he was just 15.
“They call him the mini CEO,” Rooney said. “He’s just a hard-working kid who balances it all.”
After working in the warehouse at AMS for a while, Domrique, still in high school at the time, approached Wiseman about possibly moving up in the organization. He was given a position on the office side of the operation, where he now works as an assistant account manager while attending college.
“We’re all proud of him,” Wiseman said of Domrique, who was this year’s Santa Clarita honoree and a speaker at the Sheriff’s Youth Foundation “Salute to Youth” Gala in September.
Domrique, who has served on the state Police Activities League leadership board, said that he is grateful to the YAL, Wiseman and AMS for providing him the opportunity to succeed.
“It’s taught me a lot of responsibility and it’s given me a different outlook on my future,” Domrique said. “It’s helped me become professional. I get treated like everyone else, and I don’t get judged for my age.”
He said that Wiseman’s influence has prompted him to pursue a double major in college. He plans to study not only forensics but also business, with an eye toward starting his own forensics-related business someday.
“He’s been such an amazing person,” Domrique said of Wiseman. “He’s helped me find my structure. He’s given me these roles. They didn’t have to let me come work in the office, but he gave me that opportunity to be able to try something new and help me bring out the talents that I have.”
In addition to job training and opportunities, the YAL center offers youth between 7 and 17 years old a safe haven where they can make friends, get homework help and play sports without any negative distractions.
About the Sheriff’s Youth Foundation
The Sheriff’s Youth Foundation of Los Angeles County utilizes seven individual programs that work with at-risk youth in Los Angeles County, helping children and teens pursue happy, productive lives, and steer clear of crime, drugs and other issues that can damage young lives. The Foundation is dedicated to providing them with safe facilities, planned programs, and the vital tools they need to thrive and succeed in life. The programs include the Foundation’s 17 Youth Activities League centers, as well as Success Through Awareness and Resistance (STAR); Vital Intervention Directional Alternative (VIDA); Sheriffs Teaching At-Risk Teens (START); Bicycle Education and Registration (BEAR); 999 for Kids and Stop Hate and Respect Everyone (SHARE Tolerance). For more information click here, call 323-526-5120 or send an email to emailinfo@sheriffsyouthfoundation.org.
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