Community engagement can take many forms -- and sometimes a single program can address several important community-building goals. A new summer program in Oakland, Calif. is helping small businesses there gain online visibility, while also helping local youths gain professional and tech skills.

While OaklandLocal began in 2009 as a nonprofit community news/views site, its mission has since expanded into many types of local capacity building. Their latest venture, Hack the Hood, attempts to directly address Oakland's economic and youth employment challenges.

"A year ago, we realized we'd been doing a good job teaching local businesses and nonprofits how to tell their stories and get their voice heards -- but we could do more to address Oakland's lack of jobs," said OaklandLocal founder and publisher Susan Mernit. "Oakland has a lot of small businesses, but they often aren't easy to find because they aren't showing up well in Google and other popular online directory listings. What if we could transform the whole city by making these businesses visible? And what if, at the same time, we could train local youths to help them get good jobs in tech and business?"

With funding from Google, OaklandLocal conducted a Hack the Hood pilot project in 2012. Based on that initial success they expanded into a seven-week summer program this year with funding from the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth and the Thomas J. Long Foundation.

Now in its final weeks, this summer program is training 17 local youths, who are working with up to 60 local businesses. Most of the youths are age 18-20, and two are 15. The gender spilt is about 50/50, and a range of ethnicities are represented. "Everyone had a basic technical proficiency, but no one was a serious coder or programmer," said Mernit.

Partnerships are the key to this program's success. Hack the Hood partnered with organizations that have long experience working with to local youth. The youth participants were recruited with help from the local nonprofit Youth Uprising, as well as the Oakland Mayor's summer jobs program.

Partnerships were also key to engage local businesses in Hack the Hood. "OaklandLocal has always had strong relationships with local merchant associations supporting small business," said Mernit. "So during the pilot they partnered with us and were very willing to help us with outreach to their members and the local merchant community. Merchants get pitched 'free' services all the time, that aren't really free, so they're wary. But our services really are free -- and recommendations from merchant associations greatly strengthened our credibility."

The youths are learning tech skills for building simple websites (with Weebly, a free drag-and-drop platform) as well as how to create effective listings for local businesses in key online directories. For instance, youth program associate Da Janne Taylor built a website for Sole Space, a local shoe store and art space. And youth program associate Matt Meno built a website for #1 Seafood & Chicken. While these sites aren't glamorous, they cover the basics of interest to potential local customers -- and they're also mobile-friendly.

In addition, these and other businesses in the program also now are easily findable via a location-based Google search, because they now have profiles in Google Places for Business. The youths in the program gather information from local merchants, create the profile, and ensure that the merchants follow through on confirming and activating the profile.

"The goal is not to teach kids to be programmers, but to help them learn skills that they can use to be entrepreneurs, or to manage small projects for people they know. Also, this experience can help them get placed in internships for further career advancement," said Mernit. "Most of these youths had never had a job that required using knowledge or professional skills. Here they have to look clients in the eye, make recommendations, exercise teamwork. It's a big confidence boost."

Hack the Hood youths also went on field trips to local tech giants such as Facebook, Ask.com, and Pandora to speak to employees there about tech careers.

These field trips made a big impression on the youth -- and on Mernit. She recounted that Facebook chartered a bus to bring Hack the Hood to their headquarters. "On the way home I heard one kid say to another, 'This is so amazing! I often think that no one cares what happens to me. I really want to stay with this.' That got to me," said Mernit. "A lot of kids in Oakland feel like that. They're bright and talented, they could have good jobs; they just need to be able to get some experience and encouragement."

Hack the Hood's holistic approach to advancing local youth is exemplified in the project team For instance, program manager Zakiya Harris is an experienced educator who's coaching the youths in professional and life skills. "Most of the youth we work with need support in other areas of life, so we've adopted a case management approach," said Mernit. "We want to make sure if kids have issues that affect their work, we have resources to offer them. Our team members and partner organizations provide that capability."

So far, Hack the Hood has helped about 40 local businesses with online visibility, and others are in progress. Hack the Hood is working on raising funds to keep some youth on through the fall to complete remaining projects.

Also in the fall, Hack the Hood will be evaluating its impact, to identify the types of businesses and youths this kind of program is most likely to benefit, and how those benefits emerge.

"Assuming this program proves to have value, we'd like to partner with foundations and organizations in other cities and train them how to do this kind of program," said Mernit. "We're doing more work to make this justifiable."

There's a business model, too. Mernit envisions Hack the Hood being able to offer online visibility services to local merchants on a sliding scale.

The biggest surprise of this program? "I was shocked at how enthusiastic people are about supporting a program that helps youth get good jobs in tech, vs, supporting freedom of the press and media," said Mernit. "People that I failed to interest in funding independent local media are turning out to be incredibly excited and engaged in a program that helps Oakland youth get a leg up. OK, whatever works!" she said.

(Disclosure: Amy Gahran helped launch OaklandLocal in 2009 and was associated with the site through 2011.)