At-Risk Youths Get Chance at Jobs : Training: The Galleria program offers sessions in interview skills, work habits and proper dress. At-risk students have preference, but they will have to earn the right to work.

In a novel program to help youths who are having trouble in school, 60 stores in the Glendale Galleria are offering part-time jobs to students selected by the Glendale Unified School District.

The program, called “We Care for Youth,” will begin today and Friday with training sessions for 140 students in job interview skills, work habits and proper dress.

The store owners have committed themselves to hiring 140 youths for temporary and permanent work and will give preference to those who have received the training, even though, organizers say, each student will have to win the job through interviewing.

To increase their chances of success on the job, those hired will also receive counseling as needed from the Glendale office of the California Employment Development Department.

The students, ranging from 13 to 18 years old, are considered “at risk” by the school district because of poor performance in school, association with gangs or inability to find employment. Those under 14, who are prohibited by state law from working for pay, will take volunteer jobs in the community.

“Jobs are critical for these kids,” said Linda Maxwell, a member of the Glendale Community Council, a new group of business and civic leaders formed to promote multicultural harmony and deal with the problems of the community’s youth.

“A lot of these kids can make $200 to $500 a day selling drugs, so the money they make from retail jobs isn’t significant, but the self-esteem is. And kids wait in line for these jobs because they understand that.”

Maxwell, a publicist for Spanish-language television, KVEA-Channel 52, said she proposed the idea to Galleria officials in August. The mall’s management promoted the idea among its 270 merchants, and the response was greater than expected.

“We were hoping to get a hundred jobs and we’ve exceeded that,” said Nicolette Abernathy, Glendale Galleria marketing director. “We’re thrilled with the response from the merchants.”

The students, who have been screened by the school district, will be trained and ready for work in time for the holiday rush next month.

All are considered by the school district to be “at-risk,” said Holly Weeks, assistant to Jerry Watson, assistant principal of Roosevelt Junior High School, one of two school officials who chose the students.

“They are students whose grades, attendance and educational growth are hampered by gangs or other outside activities,” Weeks said.

Weeks said getting the students involved in jobs is “fundamental in turning them around.”

“It lets them know there’s something else out there,” Weeks said. “The opportunity to work and get paychecks.”

J. C. Penney, one of the businesses participating, is offering 10 sales and stock jobs during the holiday season, store manager David Small said.

Small said the students in the “We Care for Youth” program will be guaranteed interviews, unlike many of the 100 job applicants the department store gets weekly.

“They’ll get more favorable treatment because the schools will be doing pre-screening and that helps us,” Small said.

But none of the stores are guaranteeing the students jobs.

“They have an advantage in that they will have been through training and they have the desire to work,” Maxwell said. “But they still have to go out and get the jobs, just like in the real world.”

Maxwell said she is making arrangements for three weeks of training by a private consultant. Before that, the students will go through orientation workshops today and Friday provided by the Glendale office of the Employment Development Department’s Youth Employment Opportunity Program.

Francoise Anderson, who oversees that program, said she and four college age assistants will lead the youths through mock job interviews and act as their employment agents, providing ongoing counseling and mediating with their employers should on-the-job problems arise.

Anderson who said she’s never heard of such a large youth job effort, is enthusiastic about its value for the youths.

“It feels like the right groups have come together finally to make up the right partnership,” she said. “We have the training, the referrals and the jobs, and this is where the youngsters are going to learn there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”