Pride in Parks Blitz Crew

About the Program

Category: Personnel Management, Employment and Training (Best in Category)

Year: 2016

In the autumn of 2015 Westchester County Parks entered into a cooperative interdepartmental agreement with the county’s Department of Social Services (DSS) and its Community Work Experience Program (CWEP) to offer on-the-job training and employment placement services to assist social services clients. The objective is to create an opportunity for clients on public assistance to develop work and life skills that will aid them in finding employment, ultimately reducing dependency on public assistance, while augmenting the parks’ labor force, which has been challenged due to retirements and a reduction in staffing patterns. A new team of trainees called the Pride in Parks Blitz Crew was created to receive hands-on, on-the-job training in a dynamic way. Three full-time workers provided by DSS oversee and supervise the CWEP participants in crews of trainees, six days a week. The crews work on various projects throughout the parks system. The process is under the oversight of a full-time program administrator from the Parks Department. The goal is to move each person into a paid position in six months’ time. Since its inception last fall, this crew has been working together successfully as a team and has accomplished a varied group of projects that otherwise may not have been completed. In fact, one-third of this group has moved on to more advanced training programs and educational opportunities, and many have found full-time jobs in the private sector.