Job Corps students map Palmer

EOWYN LeMAY IVEY

Frontiersman reporter

Job Corps is mapping the world beginning with Palmer, and Slack's Sugar Shack Bakery is among the first to make it on the page.

Last week a group of Alaska Job Corps Center students sat down with Nedra Slack, the owner of the Palmer bakery, and asked her questions about her business and what opportunities it might offer youth in the Valley. Internships? Scholarships? Employment?

Along the way, the students and Slack got to know each other a little better.

"You guys order a lot of doughnuts from us," Slack said.

"Yeah, we do," one of the students said with a grin. She added there is a "doughnut donation jar" set up at Job Corps to help pay for the treats. Later, Slack told the students about a Job Corps intern that worked at the bakery recently, on her way to learning the culinary trade.

A few minutes later, the students walked away with some free doughnuts and enough information to include Slack's in their community youth mapping project.

The first project of its kind in Alaska, the program is a unique combination of hands-on training and data collection. It's also an opportunity for local business owners and other adults in the community to get to know young people and begin thinking about how they might be able to form partnerships with them.

The project kicked off about a year ago as a joint effort between Job Corps and Nine Star in Anchorage, and Palmer and the Muldoon area were chosen as the first places to map. However, LaForest said she's hopeful more grant money might be identified in the future so other communities can be mapped as well.

This summer, LaForest and Job Corps instructor Barbara Hunt have accompanied 11 Job Corps students around downtown Palmer as they interview businesses owners and other agency representatives. The students have basic question forms that ask for information such as hours of operation, services provided, number of employees and contact information. Then, during a brief interview, the students also seek out information about how the business interacts in other ways with the community and what the owners know about Job Corps.

"You have to be fairly courageous," said Sara LaForest, business and community liaison for Job Corps. She said at first some of the students were nervous about approaching businesses and interviewing people.

"But now they really like it," LaForest said. "They're curious and very appreciative … they're getting very excited about the little things our community and businesses are doing every day."

In addition to bakeries and stores, the students have also visited the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center and the Colony House Museum. In store windows and on counters all around Palmer hang signs that proclaim, "We've Been Mapped," with a brief description of the project.

Very few people have turned away the students and their questions, and when they have it's been mainly for good reason.

"They just don't have the time," said Job Corps student Stephanie Novak.

More often, though, the students say they get the answers to their questions and even a few free gifts - like a doughnut or two or a tour of a local museum.

"That was really cool," Mark Sequak said of getting to visit the Colony Museum.

So far the students have visited more than 100 groups or businesses in Palmer, and they have several dozen to go. And that's just the beginning of the work. This fall, students will be trained in a mapping software program that will allow them to begin inputting the data they collected this summer.

The goal is to have all this information on a Web site where youth can go to find out about job opportunities, scholarships, internships or other resources right in their own community that they might not otherwise know about. At the same time, the map might show areas of weakness where resources for youth could be improved, such as after-school activities or a youth community center.

Throughout this process, LaForest said, the students are learning everything from interview skills to computer training, as well as getting to know Palmer better.

But in the end, it may be the community that reaps the most rewards. By forming partnerships between adults and youth, LaForest said, the program could make Palmer more appealing to its own young people.

"We want to keep our young ones around. We have an export trend in Alaska … but we want to grow our own and keep our own," she said.