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Florence Crittenton receives grant for Resume Building Skills

Florence Crittenton has received a grant from the W  K Kellogg Foundation in collaboration with Meager County Television to implement an evidence based program called Verified Resume.

The program focuses on helping youth build skills for their resume that employers will find attractive.  Many youth do not have job experience but that is not to say they don’t have skills and behaviors that employers are looking for and that youth need to succeed and lead in the 21st Century.

  • The Behaviors are Listening, Responsibility, and Teamwork
  • The Skills are Acquiring and Evaluating Information, Interpreting Information, Creativity, Negotiating, and Working with Cultural Diversity.

Florence Crittenton has been chosen as one of 6 pilot sites in Montana.   Maureen Shaughnessy, Independent Living Skills Coordinator has been trained in the program and will oversee the young womens participation.  Each girl will create a resume showing examples of these behaviours and skills which will be verified by Maureen.

The first activity created to focus around teamwork was to build pregnant and parenting scarecrows for the Florence Crittenton garden!

“This was a fun way for the girls to work on being team players, one of the job-related behaviours we are verifying on their resumes. Making these unique scarecrows also involved job skills such as creativity, negotiating and listening”  said Maureen.

“I don’t have any job experience so the skills I’m learning will help me when I apply for jobs. I can put them on my resume instead of jobs. We made a pregnant scarecrow for our garden. It was fun and interesting and it took our listening skills to know how to make them. It took teamwork to put it all together. I’m learning skills like teamwork and responsibility because these are things employers are looking for.” Said Jasia, one of the girls taking part in the program.
The goal is to have all programs that serve youth of employable age use the Verified Resume tool, to create value in the marketplace, and encourage potential employers to have additional incentive to interview and hire more Montana youth.

Florence Crittenton is looking for employers who would be willing to participate in the Verified Resume Pilot Project by allowing FC clients to volunteer or intern on a temporary basis, and to assess their job related skills and behaviors. This will help us judge the effectiveness of the VR project. 

“For a young parent, the right job can mean the difference between a lifetime of empowerment and one of dependence on public assistance.  The verified resume program provides an opportunity for girls to learn to market their skills and as a result opens doors to better employment.” said Barbara Burton, Executive Director. 

About Florence Crittenton’s Center for Pregnant & Parenting Teens
Florence Crittenton’s Center for Pregnant and Parenting Teens provides therapeutic residential & community care to pregnant and parenting young women aged 12 to 21.  Many of the girls served have experienced multiple personal challenges.  Treatment includes 24-hour care within a loving environment, intensive therapy, parenting classes and emphasizes the need for a strong bond between mother, child and extended family enabling healing to occur and creating healthy relationships.