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He runs a program aimed at giving young local minorities career aspirations

Sunday, February 24, 2002

By Donald I. Hammonds, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Few would deny that the success of Pittsburgh's economy in part depends on hiring and retaining minority workers and making sure that they land satisfying local careers.

	Khari Mosley, project manager for the Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board's Challenge Grant Initiative program -- "I really like trying to have a positive impact on youth. It's really investing in what we call human capital." (John Beale, Post-Gazette)

That will be a tall order for a region that suffers from the same ills that plague otherrust belt cities trying to do the same thing.

Here, as elsewhere, there are stubborn pockets of poverty that throw up roadblocks to success for minority youth. Just as troubling, Pittsburgh, despite efforts on the part of a number of economic development officials, agencies and civic groups, still has an image that makes it less than appealing to young minority graduates across the country who are trying to decide where to live and work.

Though Pittsburgh has a better public education system than many cities, some employers and others still perceive that it produces ill-prepared graduates for some jobs. And like other cities, young local minorities have not been exposed much to the culture of business and ways to get ahead.

That's where the Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board comes in, putting Khari Mosley on the front lines of changing the workplace landscape for local minorities. Mosley is project manager for the board's Challenge Grant Initiative program, which began about a month ago with a goal of creating better career awareness and satisfying jobs for disadvantaged youth ages 12 to 18.

"What we're trying to do is to convince youth in disadvantaged communities to see that they have a wealth of career options if they apply themselves," Mosley said. "Through our program, they learn that it is difficult to go onto a successful career development track without post-secondary-school training, whether it's a technical trade program, the military, union apprenticeship program, a four-year college or a two-year college."

The program, funded by the state, is a novel one because the participating children are joining at a time in their lives when the work world is likely to be the furthest thing from their minds. There's reason to believe that igniting that interest at a young age may make sense, given the challenges that they might have to face.

Even the way the children are recruited for the program is a bit out of the ordinary. Mosley's program has formed a partnership with Youth Places, an organization that operates a countywide system of after-school programs at 15 sites in Allegheny County. Through word of mouth and fliers, Youth Places promotes the Challenge Grant Initiative program in neighborhoods and schools.

Once they arrive at any of the 15 sites -- anytime after school from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. depending upon the site -- the students take part in age-appropriate career-related activities. Youth ages 12 and 13, for example, become members of career clubs in which they learn about a variety of jobs and are introduced to the world of work. The 13- to 14-year-olds join "Career Builders," in which they begin to focus on a specific career of their choosing and to learn about job requirements, courses of study and where they can receive the necessary training and education.

The 15- to 16-year-olds learn about entrepreneurship. "Here they learn what it's like to own your own small business, with exercises and workshops built into the curriculum," Mosley said. "One of the sites is working on a magazine, and they created a board of directors for it, while another site created a candy store."

By 17, when the students are ready to prepare to enter the work force, the emphasis is on "skill building, resume writing, doing mock interviews, shadowing, and possibly finding them internships," Mosley said.

Fortunately, the program has been able to find a variety of mentors to meet with program participants, answer questions, discuss careers and handle other tasks. They include local lawyers, teachers, bankers, musicians, artists, people from the religious community and others.

The program constantly emphasizes that college may or not be the best place for the participants to start -- an idea that is nothing short of radical for many parents, educators and others who believe that college is the only worthwhile path to a satisfying job.

But the truth is that, "too often, the youngsters are being pushed toward four-year universities when that may not be in their interest," Mosley said. "They don't know about technical, arts, culinary and other schools here, trade apprentice programs or other opportunities."

Mosley's program is set up to serve as many as 4,500, but because it is only a few months old, no precise client figures are available.

Mosley comes by his interest in young adults naturally.

"I really like trying to have a positive impact on youth. It's really investing in what we call human capital," he said. "I see that there is really infinite potential in these young people if they are nurtured in the right way and are valued."

Even his off-duty activities reflect an interest in making Pittsburgh more attractive for young adults.

Mosley is affiliated with Youth Symposium, which is working on a collaboration of young professional groups in Pittsburgh aimed at making the region more attractive to younger people, and is a board member of Onyx Alliance, a group that focuses on retaining local young African American professionals.

During the recent NFL playoffs, Mosley helped spearhead the "New Pittsburgh Party" aimed at people in their 20s and 30s at Bossa Nova, a new Cultural District nightclub on Seventh Street.