Community Resource Fair & Mock Interviews

It Takes a Village! 

Youth Emergency Shelter & Supports (YESS) is a recipient of the Racial Equity Accountability Project (REAP) grant from the Northwest Minnesota Foundation (NWMF). The project proposed and awarded to YESS is to host a community resource fair for children, youth, and families. The proposal and award also include during the resource fair, allowing for interviews for youth looking to enter the workforce. 

Park Rapids and other Hubbard County communities have offered a community resource fair for the overall community (not focused on a specific population) for about ten years. Our resources here in Hubbard County are what we in the social services field call “silos.” Community resources shouldn’t be competing to provide services because there is more than an overwhelming need for more resources to come in and help. Resources must work together to serve our clientele best and provide the best wrap-around services. For example, YESS will not provide a deposit and 1st-month rent assistance because we would refer to MAHUBE for those resources, and when they have youth needing

immediate shelter, we would be their go-to resource. If someone comes to the youth shelter because of domestic violence, even though our staff will be trained in trauma-informed care, we would refer to either the ARCC or Family Safety Network for additional resources and support. I have learned from working in the domestic, sexual violence, mental health, and housing field that when we tell someone about a resource in the community, and they have never heard of it, it will surprise me, but at the same, it doesn’t surprise me because of the minimal community outreach. Fundraising events are great outreach opportunities; however, since COVID, most fundraising is done online, and we have lost the in-person contact we humans need and require to feel a sense of connection, understanding, and empathy. 

A recent study found that 70% of homeless adults were homeless youth. If we can provide resources to children, youth, and families before homelessness becomes part of their lives, we can help reduce those numbers. With an estimated 550,000 homeless youth in the US on any given night, and in Minnesota, an estimated 6,000 homeless youth, we need more resources, not less. The numbers will only continue to rise and contribute to homelessness as adults. 

The first step is education and outreach about Hubbard County's community resources. Park Rapids currently has an ACTION Park Rapids group that works together to help reduce the “silos.” Still, it takes so much more to ensure the community is coming together for its neighbors, friends, family, and peers. The goal of the community resource fair is free attendance for all (children, youth, families, and elderly) to learn about the community resources available to them while giving youth who want to enter the workforce the opportunity to learn interview skills for various careers. Hubbard County is also known as an “older community” with retirees, snowbirds, and elderly; however, mock interviews can help keep the youth turning into adults and the opportunity to stay in the community if they can obtain and sustain employment after having a successful interview with the skills they learned from the mock interviews. 

If you are interested in being on a steering committee for this community outreach event, please contact the YESS Director, and you will be added to an email list. We are working on setting up a meeting date in July to get conversations started. You can email youthmatterinhubbardcounty@gmail.com, call 218-831-2420, or visit our website at www.yesshubbard.org. 

P.S. We hope you will join YESS at the Akeley Paul Bunyan Days Parade on June 30th, the Park Rapids 4th of July Parade, and the Nevis Muskie Days Parade on July 20th. If you want to volunteer to walk in the parade, please email youthmatterinhubbardcounty@gmail.com.