Post Secondary Opportunities

• A Post-Secondary Opportunityis a chance to further your education through career training. You can receive job training and/or an educational certification for a specific industry
• Job training opportunities will have several learning objectives. They can be full or part-time, paid or unpaid, and typically range from one year to two-year commitments.
• Programs that offer educational certifications will have required courses, internship opportunities and it ranges from one to two-year commitments.
• Postsecondary education includes education and training by institutions of higher education (it can be from two to four-year in colleges or universities)

Education

• College: Colleges tend to be more directly career-oriented than universities. This means they offer practical or hands-on training.
• University: Universities are institutions that can grant degrees. All universities have undergraduate (bachelor's) degrees, and many have graduate (Master's and doctoral) programs.

Job Market Trainings
Government of Canada Training Initiatives 

• https://www.canada.ca/en/services/jobs/training.html
• Information on education, training, financial assistance and the skills you need to find and keep a job is provided on their website
• Resources/Services provided include:
  • Youth and student job training
  • Resume Builder
  • Volunteering opportunities for youth
  • Language immersion programs
  • The Federal Student Work Experience Program (FSWEP) 
  • Apprenticeship
  • Youth jobs and internships

CareerOneStop Certification Finder 

• https://www.careeronestop.org/Toolkit/Training/find-certifications.aspx
• Search the Certification Finder by certification name, organization, industry, or occupation to generate a list of certifications. You'll also get information on the certifying organization, how to get certified, and exam details.

Youth Programs-Career Edge 

• Service: Career Exploration, Planning and Experience 
• https://careeredge.on.ca/career-exploration-planning-and-experience-cepe/

Government of Canada: Post-Secondary Recruitment

• Service: It is a recruitment opportunity for post-secondary students and graduates
• https://www.canada.ca/en/public-service-commission/jobs/services/recruitment/graduates/post-secondary-recruitment.html

Resources
CEE Center for Black Youth:https://ceetoronto.org/ 

YWCA: https://www.ywcatoronto.org/ourprograms/employmentandtraining/iwanttobealifeskillcoach 

Toronto:  https://www.toronto.ca/community-people/employment-social-support/employment-support/training-courses/ontario-works-training-programs-in-toronto/ 

Ontario: https://www.ontario.ca/page/second-career 

Pro-Social Activities Workshop

Prosocial behaviors are those intended to help other people. These actions are characterized by a concern for the rights, feelings, and welfare of other people. Behaviors that can be described as prosocial include feeling empathy and concern for others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4CfyLe0IlQ

Benefits

Youth are afforded more opportunities to express helping behaviors in other social spheres beyond the family context

• Mood-boosting effects
• Social support benefits
• Stress-reducing effects

Examples

• Helping: Helping others is a type of prosocial behavior that benefits both individuals and society as a whole
• Sharing: Many parents teach their children early on that they should share with their siblings and other children. But you can benefit society long after you've grown up by sharing what you have with others
• Donating: You can donate a wide variety of things to charities or people in your community who are less fortunate than you are.
• Volunteering: Volunteering is almost like donating, but instead of giving physical items, you're offering your time, abilities, and talents to benefit someone.
• Co-operating: Cooperating is simply working together with one or more people to accomplish a common goal. When people work together well, they can get more done than each could ever achieve on their own
• Emotional Support: Being emotionally supportive is a prosocial behavior that might not be as easy as it sounds. It can be distressing to listen to someone's troubles, and it can take some time to let them talk it out.
• Obeying Society : When you follow the rules, you benefit both yourself and society as a whole. What makes this prosocial behavior is that you do it willingly for the good of everyone.
• Social Conventions: Aside from the hard and fast written rules in society, there are also social conventions that most people follow most of the time.

Why Is It Important To Track Black Youth Pro-Social Behaviour?

• Prosocial behaviors have been linked to several important developmental outcomes including:
  • peer.
  • family.
  • Relationships.
  • academic achievement.
  • drug use or non-use.
  • delinquency.
  • and overall psychological well-being.

• Gain better understanding of the black youth who engage in prosocial or aggressive behaviors.
• Third, much of the study of African American children and adolescents has focused on deficits and problems

A Study on Prosocial Behaviors and Black Youth

• Results revealed a significant main effect for empathy, as well as an interaction between empathy and gender in predicting prosocial behavior. In general, youth with more empathy reported more prosocial behavior, and this effect was more pronounced for males than females
• These findings suggest that the ability to understand another's perspective may be important in the development and expression of prosocial behaviors, particularly among males.
• Given the importance of prosocial behavior, there is a need for more research on prosocial behavior among BLACK YOUTH.

Cultural Influence

COVID-19 EFFECTS ON YOUTH TRAFFICKING
What is youth trafficking

• Child trafficking means the recruitment and or transfer, harboring or receipt of children for the purposes of exploitation.
• Child trafficking may occur with the intention of forced labour, sexual exploitation, & child marriage.
• A study released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) illustrates the devastating impact of COVID-19 on victims and survivors of human trafficking and highlights the increased targeting and exploitation of children.
• Traffickers took advantage of the global crisis, capitalizing on peoples’ loss of income and the increased amount of time both adults and children were spending online.
• Children are being trafficked for sexual exploitation, forced marriage, forced begging and for forced criminality.

Covid-19 effects on racialized communities

• The 35 Jane cut through many hard-hit areas. 
• Racialized and working-class neighbourhoods were Toronto’s COVID-19 epicentre 
• Immediately north is a low-income, predominantly Black neighbourhood
• Black Canadians report far worse health outcomes related to COVID-19.
• Black Canadians are also more likely (43% to 56%) to report layoffs or reduced working hours in their household and are more worried, over the next few months, about paying rent (36% to 45%).

What are some potential long-term effects of COVID-19?

• The National Institutes of Health refer to long-term COVID-19 symptoms as PASC, which stands for post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2. More common terms are post-COVID syndrome, long COVID or long-term COVID. People living with post-COVID syndrome are sometimes known as “long haulers.”
• According to the CDC, the most common lasting symptoms are fatigue, shortness of breath, cough, joint pain and chest pain. Other issues include cognitive problems, difficulty concentrating, depression, muscle pain, headache, rapid heartbeat and intermittent fever.

Since job security became a serious issue during the pandemic, recruiters took advantage of vulnerable youth.

Human Trafficking is a process – this process often involves being recruited, tricked and exploited for labor. (Not just sex work)