"A national initiative should be undertaken to develop and provide information and training to reduce the risks and enhance the benefits associated with youth employment."

"Promoting Safe Work for Young Workers" is a step in that direction. It reflects the lessons learned from three NIOSH-funded community-based health education projects on young worker issues. In these projects, occupational health educators worked for three years, in three different communities, to raise the awareness of young worker issues at the community level. In this guide, those educators convey what they learned while working with different community groups including parents, employers, educators, and local media. The guide also provides information about materials that can be modified and used in other communities to meet their own needs.

The welfare of our youth is a community issue. Interest in their occupational health and safety extends well beyond the confines of their workplaces. We have prepared this guide for health professionals, labor groups, educators, employers, and parent groups. Any group can take a leadership position in making young worker issues a priority in their community. This guide will help you take the first steps.

Linda Rosenstock, M.D., M.P.H.
Director, National Institute for
   Occupational Safety and Health

In the fall of 1995, as we prepared to launch young worker projects in Brockton, MA, Oakland, CA, and Los Angeles, CA, we wondered how our message would be received. As public health professionals, we were convinced of the need for increased awareness of workplace safety for teens, but we were not sure that others would share our concern. Would community organizers find occupational safety less important than more publicized issues such as substance abuse and violence? Would local businesses recognize the value of having a more informed young workforce? Would teens find the topic boring?

But as community groups greeted our initial efforts with interest and enthusiasm, we quickly discovered that our concerns were unfounded. At the first advisory board meeting in Brockton, for example, representatives of 30 community groups and government agencies stayed on long past adjournment, volunteering services and ideas. In Los Angeles, 100 youth leaders, teens, and parents participated in the first media event, requesting information on everything from child labor laws to sexual harassment in the workplace. At Oakland Technical High School, more youths volunteered as peer leaders than staff could initially accommodate. Clearly, many wanted to address this issue.

Over the course of the projects, we learned several key lessons. The active participation of diverse community members was necessary to develop a comprehensive educational approach to young worker safety and maintain broad-based support. In addition, because representatives of community groups already have full agendas, we realized the importance of demonstrating how young worker safety and health can fit into existing initiatives for healthier youth, safer workplaces, and stronger community coalitions. Finally, we found it necessary to emphasize the value of young worker projects to local businesses and the many members of the community who support their interests. We frequently made the point that insuring the safety and health of teen workers lays the foundation for a better work environment and a more knowledgeable workforce.

This guide outlines the steps we took in planning and carrying out the young worker projects. We invite others with an interest in teen safety to try one or more of the activities in this guide. And we wish you success in improving conditions for working teens in your communities.

Project Summaries

Massachusetts Department of
Public Health (MDPH) and the
Education Development Center,
Inc. (EDC)

Brockton, Massachusetts, located 20 miles south of Boston, was formerly an industrial city whose many factories now stand abandoned. Its current multi-ethnic population of 90,000 has a workforce that is primarily blue collar and service oriented. Brockton has one public high school with 3,000 students and a regional vocational technical school nearby.

The Protecting Young Workers project in Brockton was coordinated by the Occupational Health Surveillance Program of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in partnership with the Education Development Center, Inc. The project was guided by an active community advisory board consisting of 35 representatives from Greater Brockton high schools, the business community, local community organizations, health care providers, the mayor's office, labor organizations, nearby colleges, youth groups, and the media.

The staff selected Brockton for several reasons. According to workers' compensation data, Brockton has the highest rate of injuries among teen workers in Massachusetts. The public high school has a successful school-to-career program in place with strong ties to local employers on which to build program activities. The demographics of the community reflect national averages, making it a good model for other communities interested in similar projects.

University of California at Berkeley,
Labor Occupational Health Program (LOHP)

The city of Oakland, California is located 7 miles across the Bay from San Francisco. Oakland has a multi-ethnic population of more than 370,000 residents and a multi-faceted employment profile, with jobs in the industrial, service, office/financial, and construction sectors. Oakland Unified School District is a major urban school district with a diverse student population (54% African-American, 19% Asian, 19% Latino, 7% White, and 1% other). It is the sixth largest district in California and has six comprehensive high schools and seven alternative high schools that serve more than 9,300 students.

The Young Worker Project in Oakland was coordinated by the Labor Occupational Health Program (LOHP), a community-service program of the University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health, in partnership with the Oakland School District. The project's advisory committee had 15 active members, representing school district teachers and administration, local job training programs, employers, Cal-OSHA, labor unions, and the PTA.

The Oakland School District was selected because it is a large urban district; because LOHP had existing relationships and had done previous work with key teachers and administrative staff in Oakland; and because the district had a strong commitment to building its school-to-career program based on its twelve existing academy programs.

University of California at Los
Angeles, Labor Occupational Safety
and Health Program (LOSH)

The Los Angeles, California project was in the Vernon-Central area, where well-paying manufacturing jobs were located until the 1980s. The population is Latino and African-American. The existence of sweatshops and an informal economy in Los Angeles make it difficult for both students and adults to find meaningful, safe employment, especially those who are immigrants. Jefferson High School, the site of the young worker project (Jefferson Safety and Health Education Project—Jeff SHEP) has a student population of 3,400, of which almost 90% are Latino.

The Jefferson Safety and Health Education Project was a partnership between UCLA Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program (UCLA-LOSH), Jefferson High School, and Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles. It was directed by a steering committee consisting of representatives from each partner organization and guided by a 15-member advisory board representing the larger community of students, parents, teachers, government agencies, labor unions, youth groups and other community-based organizations.

This community was selected because of the potential to build school-community links. Existing networks were used to provide bilingual education to reach immigrant parents as well as students. Concerned Citizens has developed a network of neighborhood block clubs, and the school provides English and citizenship classes to parents through an adult education program. UCLA-LOSH had collaborated with both organizations on other projects and wanted to begin integrating work-related curriculum into the Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest in California and the second largest in the country, with 49 high schools and 45 continuation schools.

This page was last updated: January 25, 2000