The DCRA summer youth polo shirts have been well received by the young employees.

The DCRA summer youth polo shirts have been well received by the young employees.

In the past, being properly dressed for work has been a problem for some of the District summer youth employees.  Summer youth have been sent home from work because they were improperly dressed or were not aware of how to dress business casual. This year, the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs has provided youth with polo style shirts with the summer youth employment logo on them. Youth have been asked to wear their shirts every Monday so that at least once a week the summer youth have a uniformed look. Most of the youth appreciate the fact that DCRA has given them shirts for work. Some students reported that they would appreciate some small changes in the shirts, such as a difference in color.

I asked some youth on a scale of 1 to 10 how they felt about the shirts and many of the youth appreciate the fact that DCRA has helped them with a start to dress more business casual for work. In my opinion, the decision by the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs to provide every youth in this program with a shirt is very helpful. It allows youth to see how much they are appreciated by the program.

I had the opportunity to get some honest opinions from summer youth workers. I asked them exactly how they felt about the polo style shirt and I got some really good feedback. Summer youth Jazmine Singletary reported that she felt the shirts were kind of masculine for females but she does enjoy the fact that she does not have to find something to wear on Mondays. If Jazmine could change the color of the shirt she would feel better if the color were lighter. I also talked with summer youth worker Chidiomimi Ukwuani. She actually likes the color of the shirt but would like to change the day that that shirts are suppose to be worn. She said she would rather wear her shirt on a Friday. After interviewing youth based on their feelings about the polo style shirts most youth appreciate them and understand why DCRA feels like the shirts are an essential part of the summer program.

—Dajah Blackwell