<Begin Segment 23>

BF: Well, going back to some of those, those, the government program you were a part of, what types of solutions were they trying to put forth for these disadvantaged youth?

AS: Okay. What they wanted to do was help youth get trained, there were some training programs, not a great deal. Not a great number of choices. Or get them back in school, or those who weren't, that's not the answer for them for whatever reason, then to help them get jobs. And so, so I, lot of, worked with a lot of dropouts, some with juvenile records, and so it really was, it was quite a bit of counseling involved, just to get them to the point where they could realize what options were open to them, what might help, what might change their lives. And I really felt it was a very, very good experience.

BF: It sounds daunting.

AS: Well, it was, yeah, it was. Had some very interesting cases, unbelievable.

BF: Did you find -- I mean, I'm trying to think, you, this was really kind of almost a sort of a first job in a way. I mean --

AS: Well, first job that I really felt that I was doing something that...

BF: You're still very young.

AS: Oh, no, by this time I'm older because there was this gap before I went to school and when I started the job. So we, this is now about '65? '64? Somewheres around there, yeah.

BF: So what do you think you learned, or what was most challenging about those years in that, in that program?

AS: Well, the problems that these kids came with were just incredible, and some of the backgrounds they came from, I mean, it was just unbelievable in some cases, in too many cases. So how to really help them so that they have a positive outlook and will stake steps towards doing something that they would feel good about, or at least reasonably, feel reasonably good. And then I always emphasized that wherever you start, that's just a start. If you do a good job, you're responsible, reliable rather, then it's so much easier to get the next job which will be a better job. And, of course, I always emphasized education, and I know in one case, I had a young girl who was pregnant, and she didn't want to tell her parents, and so she didn't know what to do, she was just... and so I said, I asked her -- and she was still in high school, she was, I think, going to either Rainier Beach or Franklin, I don't remember. And so I said, "Well, have you spoken to your counselor at the high school?" And she said, "No." "And you say you can't talk to your parents?" I said -- and then, of course, I checked, "Is there somebody you could talk to?" And I found that there was aunt that she would be able to talk to. I said, "I think you should talk to your aunt about this." And I told her what I would do, I was going to call her high school counselor and find out what could be worked out for this girl. And he did, I found out about teenage program, teenage pregnancy program that they had, and I think things worked out. So in her case, it was not a, it was more important for her to deal -- and so sometimes the problems that they came with had nothing to do with getting a job, or there were other factors that were really troubling, and so I would deal with those problems. So it was really unbelievable, some of the situations that came up. Most of the time it was dealing with jobs or training or schooling.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.