Community Summer Youth Employment Program 2014

Provider Overview

The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) and Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS) administered the 2014 Community Summer Youth Employment Program to provided eligible youth with age-appropriate:

• Job training, • Life skills, • Counseling, • Work-readiness skills, and • Supervised meaningful work experience.

The Illinois workNet® Web Portal was used to facilitate the program.

Providers could recruit employers using the SYEP Employer flyer and public site. These provided an overview of:

• Program components.

• Why this program is important Illinois communities.

• Criteria for participating.

• Employer roles.• The employers provided the jobs.• The program paid the wages.

Providers could recruit youth using the SYEP Youth flyer (available in English & Spanish), Program Overview PowerPoint, and public site. These provided an overview of the program components.

Plus, 2013 success stories were available show how the program help youth the previous year.

Youth and their parents/guardians used the public site information to:

• Learn about eligibility requirements.

• Ask questions before they applied for the program.

• Find local providers.

• Apply online.

• Access career exploration and job search preparation tools.

Over 10,000 youth applied online!

Providers used the SYEP Partner Guide for resources for guidance in administering the program such as:

• Accessing SYEP Partner Tools (Approved SYEP provider staff was provided access to view only applications that were submitted for their location.)

• Access to update information.• Registering for training webinars.• Submitting questions.• Accessing archived training and technical

assistance webinars.• Accessing resources:

• Presentation Materials• Online Resources • Forms• Partner instructions• Youth instruction pages/handouts

Once they applied online, youth were able to access the following tools through their account:

• Pre/Post-Assessment• Employment 101 Guide & Plans• Certificate of Completion• Resume Builder

As youth applied online, SYEP providers were able to review applications and manage participant enrollment through the SYEP Partner Tools.

Access Levels for SYEP Partner ToolsAll approved SYEP staff had access to the following tools that provided information for their specific location.

Approved DCEO and DHS staff had the ability to view:• All of the sites associated with their

organization, or • Individual sites associated with their

organization

SYEP Partner Tools Dashboard• Provided a summary of youth in the

pipeline. • The results provided a link to a filtered

list based on the specific criteria for that section of the dashboard.

SYEP Partner Tools Youth List

Access to: • View and edit participant applications.• Recover participant password.• View youth assessment results and saved

information.• Set enrollment and completion status.• View number of payroll records for the

participant.• View job placements.

SYEP Partner Tools for Employer/Worksite Entry

Access to: • View a list of employers or search for the employer.• Add, view, and edit employer information.• Add, view, and edit worksite information.• Record background completion status/date.• Record worksite agreement completion status/date• Record projected number of part/full time placements.

SYEP Partner Tools for Participant Worksite Placements

Access to: • View a list of employers and summary

of placements.• Add, view, and edit worksite placement

information (i.e., record part/full time, regular/supervisor, industry, and start/end dates).

• Search for youth participants placed with a worksite.

SYEP Partner Tools forPayroll and Expenditure Report

Access to: • Add, view, and edit payroll entries.• Upload payroll and expenditure reports.• View payroll approval status.

DCEO and DHS approved staff could access the manage payroll tool to review and approve payroll upload entries.

SYEP Partner Tools Reports

SYEP Providers, DCEO, and DHS approved staff could access various reports based on their level of access.

Providers used the Illinois workNet SYEP partner tools to collect program completion information.

• They encouraged both youth or employer participants to submit a success story. Providers were provided access to submit success stories on behalf of the participant.

• They encouraged both youth and employer participants to complete a post-program survey to collect feedback for future program enhancements.

• They entered the completion status/outcomes of the youth participants.