Online job board replaces Rent-a-Youth program

A new online job bank has launched, connecting youth with local people offering odd jobs.

Employers and employees will be connected through a website, managed by an area teen and supported in part by RAY’s Place.

One of last year’s RAY’s Place scholarship recipient Josh Swift, 19, will manage the site. A Baxter resident and Nottawasaga Pines Secondary School graduate, Swift is currently studying Kinesiology at Western University with plans to pursue a minor in rehabilitation sciences and graduate school in physiotherapy or chiropractic.

RAY’s Place chair Doug Mills said, impressed by Swift’s leadership abilities and maturity, he thought Swift would be able to manage the project, while home for the summer.

“It was time to bring this kind of tool to Creemore,” said Swift. “Creemorejobs.ca provides both parties access to what jobs are available and makes the whole exercise simple, fast and easy.”

Youth between the ages of 13 and 18 who are seeking summer jobs and potential employers are encouraged to register online at creemorejobs.ca. The website will replace the rent-a-youth program.

“The program, the way it was run in the past, took a lot of manpower to match them up because it was being done by telephone. Kids don’t operate that way. They live on their cell phones and computers so we are just moving into 2016,” said Mills. “It’s a more modern and effective way of employers and employees communicating and it takes it out of RAY’s Place and puts it into a virtual community entity.”

Once connected through the site, clients offering a variety of jobs around their home or business, deal directly with the youth, who are to be paid the minimum student wage or more. Registered users will be able to access the job board by contacting the project manager who will post available jobs.

Creemorejobs.ca is not an agency or even an employer. It acts as the go-between to make work happen and it does so at no cost to either clients or youth participating in the site.

“Once arrangements have been made between the youth and the client, we play no further role in supervision or quality control issues. The youth are self-employed contractors – running their own businesses, which is the way we think they will get the most value out of the experience,” said Swift. “We also feel it’s important, though, that both youth and clients are aware of and sensitive to any safety issues that a particular job might entail.”

Creemorejobs.ca will make every effort to ensure everybody involved fulfills their agreements.

Ray’s Place Youth Resource Centre, which had operated youth employment initiatives in past years, played a role in helping fund the site development and in defraying some initial operating expenses for creemorejobs.ca. Mills said the main two reasons for the change is to make the system more efficient using technology and to reduce liability by removing RAY’s Place as the employer.

“We know just how tough it can be for our youth to find summer work; we’re very pleased to support Josh in this initiative and we’ll be providing all the advice and support we can to Josh to make it a success,” said RAY’s Place chair Doug Mills.

Swift will start his new role as manager on May 14 and information sessions for students are planned for mid-May.

For more information, visit the website or call Doug Mills at 705-466-3339.