Five Youth Opportunity Centers (YOCs) often serve more than 1,250 young people ages 16-21 each year. Young people may work six-week stints at a work site, giving them valuable job experience.YOUTH OPPORTUNITY CENTERS around Riverside County offer employers a quick and efficient way to find young workers, and an ongoing certification process ensures that the services being provided to employers are meeting the mark.

Each of the county’s five Youth Opportunity Centers (YOCs) often serves more than 250 young people ages 16-21 each year, including some who are newly enrolled each year and others who are carryovers from prior years. Part of the program calls for young people to work six-week stints at a work site, giving them valuable job experience.

An important part of the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI)program at the YOCs is the certification process. The YOCs in Indio, Perris and Lake Elsinore all are certified. The newest YOC, which is in Rubidoux, is expected to be certified in Fall 2010, while the YOC in Hemet is certified and is scheduled to be recertified by the end of the year.

Centers typically are recertified on a rotating basis every two years.

“They come out and see what we are doing, and how we are serving young people,” said Lenore DeJesus, Program Coordinator at the Empower Youth Center in Hemet, where she has worked for 14 years. “The feedback we get from this process helps us in terms of what changes we may need to make.”

The certification process is especially important to the individual centers because their funding is contingent on being successfully certified.

“It’s not an easy process,” said Ricardo Olalde, Chairman of the Riverside County Workforce Investment Board.

"The documentation alone is pretty extensive.”

“Each center has to meet certain criteria, demonstrate sound business practices and show leadership and innovation,“ DeJesus said. The process also involves a site visit before certification can be conferred by the Council for Youth Development.

“It’s time-consuming, but it is worth it,” DeJesus said.