Aisha Boyd - youth development specialist
After being laid off from the YMCA in September of 2004, I struggled very hard to make ends meet. I worked several different odd end jobs for about one-and-a half years losing my apartment and almost my first vehicle. My credit went downhill and so did my emotions. I was hired to work as a head teacher at a local daycare. It wasn’t job that I wanted to do, but I needed the money. I stayed for about one year because nothing else came through for me during that time. I even interviewed on my lunch breaks while working for this agency. I ended up leaving after that year and was back to the drawing board. I begin working for several different agencies again.
Tears of Joy
One day while working at one of the odd end jobs, I received a phone call from Rosa Plaza at Southend Community Services. This was one of the many agencies that I interviewed for during my lunch breaks. Rosa called with news that brightened my day and future. She called to offer me a job as a Youth Development Specialist. This position had all the perks that I didn’t have at that present time. It was full-time. came with benefits, and had a decent salary. I was so excited that I cried silently. So, I started August 22, 2005. I was so excited to become apart of Southend Community Services because it would allow me to work in the field that I chose as a career path. I was also able to maintain the part time job for a little while longer until I felt it was time to resign.
New OPPortunity
Working with Southend Community Services, now known as Our Piece of the Pie, has been a very good experience for me. Not to long after I started, my wonderful supervisor, Gerard Dawes, suggested that I take a certificate program at Goodwin College called ‘Greater Hartford Youth Development Practitioners Academy’. In November of 2005, I started along with another co-worker. This educational experience was a blessing for me because I was able to learn something that would benefit my work ethics now at OPP, as well as in the future. I had applied what I learned at school to my weekly contact with the youth on my caseload. Being an exceptional student at Goodwin allowed me to be interviewed for a local newspaper, and also put on spotlight for Goodwin’s Alumni. Thanks to OPP and their support of the educational development of their staff I was able to gain and apply what I learned to what I do as a Youth Development Specialist.
