Here is a Great Resource for WBL Coordinators. Read On.
Young Worker Safety Resource Center
A Project of the Education Development Center, Inc. and U.C. Berkeley, Labor Occupational Health Program
Lu Nations-Miller, Education Program Specialist for Transition
Division for Exceptional Students
Georgia Dept of Education
The University of California at Berkeley, working in conjunction with the Education Development Center of Massachusetts, is offering free resources, services, and trainings to help protect your state's young workers. Here are two new resources available at no cost to educators and employers in your state, designed to educate and protect your state’s young workers.
Youth @ Work: Talking Safety is a 3-5 hour curriculum that provides basic occupational safety and health information to high school age students. To see an online version for your state, go to http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/talkingsafety/
Small Business Resources: Includes training materials and other health and safety management resources to help small business employers train and protect their employees, with special emphasis on their young workers. This will be available online by this summer. You can view a California version at http://www.dir.ca.gov/chswc/SBMRhealthandsafety.htm
Our federal OSHA-funded Young Worker Safety Resource Center (YWSRC) also offers free services to state agencies to help them protect the safety of their state’s young workers. We offer the following services and training opportunities:
Consultation with state departments of Education, Labor and Health to identify ways they can incorporate Youth @ Work into their school- and community-based job readiness programs.
On-site workshops for teachers and job readiness professionals on how to deliver the Youth @ Work curriculum to the young people they serve and how to reach small business employers of youth with information on keeping their young workers safe and healthy. To date, at least 18 states have participated in our training and begun to incorporate the Youth @ Work curriculum in school and community programs.
A national training for state agencies involved in young worker safety. On September 11 and 12, we’ll be sponsoring a training at Education Development Center, in Newton, Massachusetts, for our young worker safety state partners. This will be an opportunity to share ideas and resources, and to receive training in working with small business employers.
Work is a common feature of teen life; approximately 80% of teens start working during their high school years. While employment offers many benefits to young people, it also carries significant risks. Every year, approximately 55,000 teens are injured on the job seriously enough to seek emergency department treatment. Teens are injured at a higher rate than adult workers. State agencies such as departments of Education, Labor, and Health all have an important role to play in improving and promoting the safety of young workers. These agencies can establish policies and programs that help incorporate occupational health and safety training for youth into career readiness, health education, and vocational technical education classes; into job training programs for at-risk youth; and into programs serving youth with learning disabilities. They can also help disseminate resources and training programs for small businesses that hire young workers.
We look forward to hearing from you. Please answer the questions below, or call or email either of us for more information and/or to discuss a site visit and training.
Sincerely,
Diane Bush
Labor Occupational Health Program
University of California, Berkeley
dbush@berkeley.edu
510-642-5507
Chris Miara
Education Development Center, Inc.
cmiara@edc.org
617-618-2238
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