NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT: Mission Accomplished Transition Services
Photo by Tom Miller
“Whether they are taking on operations on a project, they are fully owning that role through completing tasks and ensuring that they are working with a mentor with industry-specific knowledge that can support them through that process, while also allowing them to navigate the project itself.”
Think back to your teenage years and your early twenties – a time of excitement and potential, but also of confusion. Think even about your early thirties, where you may have been looking for a new path, one that brought you more fulfillment and was rooted in a purpose that you hadn’t yet found in your younger years. Wouldn’t it have been helpful to have a guide alongside you, supporting your continuing education and endeavors into the professional world? What if they were rooted in the same industry that you were looking to break into, ready to support you as you learn the ropes? This mentorship is exactly what Mission Accomplished Transition Services, based in Schenectady, seeks to achieve.
Now a 501(c)3 with a thoroughly developed range of opportunities for students to engage in industry-specific coaching, mentoring, and sponsorship, the roots of Mission Accomplished come from workshops put on by Coach Carmen Duncan back in 2011.
“They were relationship-building based,” she describes to me. “I was very much focused on helping young adults in their twenties foster healthy relationships with friends as well as intimate relationships. It was [also] career preparation: resume writing, interview prep, and also dining etiquette as well as community organizing.”
After years of developing these workshops, Coach Carmen was able to begin working full-time at the organization when she secured a contract with Albany County to develop a restitution program. Teens who were in the juvenile justice system after committing a low-level crime engaged in this program, which still lives on today, to not only pay off their restitution, but develop workplace skills in order to eventually become part of our community’s workforce.
Although that was their first official program, and many of the elements exist in their repertoire today, it’s important for Coach Carmen that Mission Accomplished not be pigeon-holed as a program that only works with youth considered at-risk.
“It doesn’t matter what your socioeconomic background is. When you are preparing for the transition from school into the workplace, and once in the workplace from job to job, job to career, or job to entrepreneurship, you need focused, industry-specific mentorship,” she explains.
Through their Teen Institutes, teen internship programs, and Advanced Institutes, and business incubator programs, the folks at Mission Accomplished provide career and business education through 1:1 as well as group mentorship and coaching that helps them further develop a variety of skills, helping them find opportunities in which they can thrive as they put these skills into practice. The mentors are industry specific professionals in Mission Accomplished's areas of focus: fashion, construction, interior design, mural painting, and public art. These areas were intentionally chosen as they are industries in which Black and Brown professionals are often underrepresented.
All of this work is founded on their research-based Positive Youth Development Framework, which entails features such as appropriate structure, opportunities for skill building, integration of family, school, and community efforts, and opportunities for self-advocacy, among others.
Rachel Rankin, Teen Institute producer, shared how the components of this framework can be observed in action in the internship. “The [element] we find most effective in supporting all of the other Positive Youth Development aspects is really seeing themselves as leaders within the program. [The kids] aren’t just running to grab coffee; they are true interns taking on projects with responsibilities and roles. And they are fully owning that role through completing tasks and ensuring that they are working with a mentor with industry-specific knowledge that can support them through that process, while also allowing them to navigate the project itself.”
Each industry mentor is thoroughly vetted to ensure that they are aligned with the Positive Youth Development framework so that they can begin immediately making positive impacts and forming positive relationships with students. Rachel, Coach Carmen, and the rest of their team often are in the community at landscape tradeshows, bridal shows, and college student groups like the beauty and hair-focused “Love Thy Crown” to find industry professionals who can provide opportunities for their student interns.
But who better to hear it from than the students themselves? One of their Teen Construction & Design student interns explained their own specific gains within the program, saying “I feel that this opportunity broadened my understanding of problem solving so that I think of more potential hazards to accommodate when building something.”
The same went for a Teen Fashion & Beauty student intern, who explained that, “The job shadowing has helped me think about different ways to source materials and the different fields within the jewelry business and how to work and communicate effectively.”
Each skill that the students learn is actively transferable to their desired industry, which also allows students to recognize their value in the workplace and the respect that they deserve.
Of course, though, Mission Accomplished isn’t just about the teens – it’s about the adult entrepreneurs, too. They have taken two of their focus areas — Construction & Design and Fashion & Beauty — and developed Advanced Institutes for them, designed for entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 35 who have already operated their business for over four years and generated at least $50,000 over the previous year. These entrepreneurs, Coach Carmen says, “are seeking to elevate their brand as industry educators and gain more confidence and knowledge in managing the day-to-day operations of their company. For those that are part-time, they’re looking to go full-time in their business. For those that are full-time, they’re seeking to streamline their business. They are able to hire a team, hand over some of the responsibility so that they are able to develop a legacy business that would be passed down for generations.”
As for the future of Mission Accomplished Transition Services, both Coach Carmen and Rachel have clear goals for their path. “I definitely want us to be a nationally recognized and respected organization within the workforce and economic development, industry-specific education, mentorship and coaching worlds,” says Coach Carmen. “From having our online education options to our in-person programs like our teen Internship Program where we’re able to work in partnership with community-based organizations and for-profit companies in order to bring our framework into our communities.”
If you’re interested in how to support Mission Accomplished and work in one of their focused industries, Rachel says the most valuable contribution is “getting involved through an internship, working directly with student interns, or as an industry mentor if you’re in our fields of focus and have a passion for supporting the next generation.”
"We invite industry-aligned businesses as well as workforce and economic development funders to support the long-term sustainability of our program. We deeply believe in ensuring our interns earn while they learn and providing entrepreneurs with financial support to purchase software, supplies and equipment, and pay themselves. With the funding support of well financed businesses and initiatives, we will be able to expand our impact and capacity," says Coach Carmen.
So, here’s to the next generation of innovators and leaders, wherever they are on their path to success. Just know, Mission Accomplished Transition Services is ready to help you find “where passion meets purpose.”
For more information on Mission Accomplished, visit https://matransitionservices.org/. Connect with Mission Accomplished online on Instagram and Facebook @missacc12 or email them at inquire@matransitionservices.org
