DECATUR, Ala. (AP) - Twenty-one-year-old Angel Zanetti is taking classes at Calhoun Community College while working at a Decatur animal clinic, with the goal of becoming a vet tech and, ultimately, a veterinarian.
She’s come a long way since Nov. 27, 2018. That was the day Zannetti was released from Morgan County Jail on theft and burglary charges, and moved into the Neighborhood Christian Center’s Transitional Home.
“I realized, something’s got to change,” said Zanetti, who first used meth at age 12 but is now sober.
Zanetti took advantage of the Launch program, one of three workforce readiness programs for youths provided at the Decatur Career Center, with the assistance of numerous partner agencies. All three programs serve out-of-school youths, ages 16 to 24.
“It’s been a great support system for me,” said Zanetti, who joined the Launch program in March, earned a GED in May and completed work-based learning placement. She’s now taking part in on-the-job training, working full time at Osborne Animal Clinic in Decatur.
“It’s more than people helping youth,” Zanetti said of the program and its staff. “They genuinely care; they become family.”
She’s not the only one who has benefited from the program.
“We have huge successes with our youth - a GED, a college degree, a job,” said Summer Morgan, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act youth case manager at the Decatur Career Center. Launch is a WIOA-funded program, in association with WellStone Behavioral Health. Participants are assisted in developing educational and career goals, enrolling in training and degree programs and gaining meaningful and self-sustaining employment.
According to Launch counselor Stephanie White, the program now has 31 participants in active and follow-up status. Of those, five have earned a GED or high school diploma and six have moved to post-secondary education within the past year.
For Dr. Steven Osborne Sr., a veterinarian who opened Osborne Animal Clinic in 1979, this is the first time a Launch participant has worked at his business. He said Zanetti has demonstrated a good work ethic.
“She’s committed to bettering herself and making changes,” he said.
Another WIOA-funded program, managed by Northwest-Shoals Community College, is Youth Success, which serves Lawrence County youth.
Since career adviser Debbie Latham joined Youth Success in 2014, through July, it has served 72 youth, with nine receiving high school diplomas and 21 earning GEDs.
“That’s a whole graduating class,” Latham said. “That’s 30 kids who changed their lives.”
Thirteen participants have enrolled in post-secondary education or a certificate program, at either Calhoun or Northwest-Shoals.
At a quarterly meeting last week for partners in the youth programs, Latham introduced one of the program’s success stories, 19-year-old Sebastian Brooks, who now lives in Moulton.
Brooks dropped out of school in the ninth grade while living with his mother in Marshall County, and his drug use escalated to taking Xanax and other drugs.
“At 18, I had no education, no driver’s license,” said Brooks. “I had nothing going for me.”
The Morgan County native left his mother, who he said also had problems with drugs, in February, with his father coming to his rescue. Brooks’ father learned about the Youth Success program on Facebook, and the teen joined the program earlier this year, receiving his GED in April. He is getting work-based learning experience through a part-time job at Oakville Indian Mounds Park and Museum.
He’s now enrolled in the two-year aerospace technology program at Calhoun, and is finishing his first semester there.
“Without the program, I would probably not have my GED and I would probably not be in college right now,” he said.
“I’ve been clean and sober nine going on 10 months. I went from a strung-out addict to a college student.”
Project Search is another WIOA-funded program which operates in association with The Arc of Madison County and the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services, and serves special needs youth.
Since the program started in November 2018, it has had 22 interns, with 10 now employed at a variety of employers - Decatur Morgan Hospital, Madison Hospital, Merrill Gardens in Madison and the Huntsville Marriott, said Rebecca McMurray, a work skills trainer with The Arc. All but one are working full time.
Project Search provides a “life-changing experience” for its participants, McMurray said. “They’re able to go out and gain competitive employment.”
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