Teen Summer Safety Training Recap

Just days after that last school bell rings in June, the workforce is flooded with young teens looking to make some extra money. Determined to avert work injuries that can affect teens for the rest of their lives, a team of youth peer leaders from MassCOSH Teens Lead @ Work (TL@W) and state agency partners embarked on an effort to ensure that youth were armed with essential job safety information.

The state’s Commonwealth Corporation and Department of Public Health, which collectively fund thousands of youth summer jobs, instituted a new requirement that all grant recipients provide safety training to their teen employees – a critical achievement toward MassCOSH’s goal that all youth jobs programs require safety training.

Thanks to the Boston Youth Fund (BYF), the Boston Private Industry Council (PIC), and the John Hancock/MLK Summer Scholars program, TL@W recruited a team of seventeen youth peer leaders who fanned out across Greater Boston to help organizations achieve their safety training requirement, while TL@W adult staff and two returning alumni offered train-the-trainer sessions to adult supervisors who will provide their own safety training.

“Having a friend be able to tell you your rights on the job is important,” says Teen Leader Taija Drayton. “Being a teen, it’s easier to tell [another teen] about problems at work then it is an adult.

As a key component of workplace safety, TL@W peer leaders educated young people on the perils of sexual harassment at the workplace – an issue even adults can have difficulty addressing. The youth developed a comprehensive curriculum last summer, with assistance and input from the state’s Occupational Health Surveillance Program, Attorney General’s Office and many other youth and adult advisors.

“Before there was no curriculum for us, there was no teen-friendly material on sexual harassment,” reports Whitley Paris, a summer peer leader. “Without this training, teens wouldn’t know what to do, like who would they know to report harassment to if their boss was doing it?”

After taking part in the TL@W program, the peer leaders hoped that teens will be more aware of their rights at the workplace when exposed to any hazards – including sexual harassment – and will know what to do if such a situation at work occurs.

Fellow Teen leader Ashlee Morton seconds Paris. “Teens are not aware of their rights on the job. But as a trained teen, if someone tells me about a work issue, I can tell them what to do,” explains Morton.

The teens capped off their summer with a reunion event during the MassCOSH open house, celebrating almost 9 years of the program. Current and former peer leaders were in attendance to discuss the program's humble beginnings and possible future achievements, including national conferences on youth health and safety issues. As long as teens continue to be a part of the workforce, TL@W will seek to inform them on how to maintain a safe and healthy job environment.

Click here to view the teen created sexual harassment curriculum: NO means No!: Dealing with Sexual Harassment at Work.

To learn more about TL@W, sexual harassment, or to inquire about a safety training, please contact Nancy Luc at nancy.luc@masscosh.org.

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