AT AMERICAN INDIAN CENTER
 
 
India Price, 20, a pre-nursing student at Merritt College, has a summer job that involves her in the day-to-day operations of youth programs at the American Indian Child Resource Center in Oakland.
 
Her work has ranged from helping with mailings in the office, to organizing health classes and field trips, to serving on the staff of the Cultural Arts Camp where young people make moccasins, beadwork and graffiti art. She is also beginning to learn project management and grant writing.
 
"It's been fun and interesting, helping kids here in Oakland," Price said. "I've been a tutor (during the school year), and this summer I've been able to get closer to some of the younger students," which will help her improve her tutoring the fall, she said.
 
The American Indian Resource Center has been able to provide jobs to 25 youth ages 14 to 24 this summer with federal stimulus funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, overseen by the Oakland Workforce Investment Board (WIB).
 
The citywide goal of this year's summer jobs program has been to provide work for 1,100 Oakland youth.
 
Thirteen organizations were selected to be part of the program operated by the WIB, which is composed of local, business, labor, education and community leaders. The Oakland Private Industry Council administers the program on behalf of the WIB.
 
The American Indian Center's jobs program, which continues though the end of September, has placed youth in a variety of firms, including a local supermarket, restaurant, landscape design, office skills training, as well as helping with youth programs at the center.
 
The placements have been extremely successful, in part because employers have been very supportive, and also because placements were based on the expressed interests of the youth themselves, said Rebecca Raymond, director of the Indian Education Center at the agency.
 
"We've all been pleasantly surprised. The young people have been amazing - their faces just light up when you ask them how it's going," she said.
 
So far, none of the youth have dropped out of the program. The jobs have been a godsend, she said, because a number of the young people had previously been struggling unsuccessfully to find work and had not connected to educational services. "Some had dropped out of school, and they weren't working on their GED," Raymond said.
 
Because of the jobs, she said, "We've been able to reconnect with them, give them some tangible skills."
 
The biggest obstacle has been handling all the paperwork that goes with stimulus funding. "This is a federal grant - there are tons of paperwork, "Raymond said. "But the people at the Private Industry Council have been amazing - they have really been helping. Their staff should get a lot of kudos."
 
Started in 1974, the American Indian Child Resource Center serves the Indian population of Oakland and the Bay Area, estimated at over 172,000 individuals. The agency was started to provide transitional support for people who moved to the cities as part of the federal government's Relocation Program in the 1950s.
 
The center's programs include academic tutoring and homework help, working with the foster care system to arrange home placements, counseling and cultural, sports and recreational activities. The board of directors includes Native American members who are sensitive to the issues facing Indian families.
 
The summer job experience has taken Joshua Louis, 20, in a new direction in his life. Until now, he has only worked as a landscaper.  "It was my first time working in an office," said Louis, who is starting this fall at Laney College with a major in business. "I'm used to using my hands, but now I'm working a copier, fax machines, and doing other kinds of office work. It's a different experience."