Think back to your high school summer breaks… did you attend summer camp? Work as a baby-sitter? Lounge around playing video games all-day? All of these seem like the “typical” teenager thing to do with over 60 days of freedom but for the nearly 800 students enrolled in our summer youth program, they envisioned a much different summer break for themselves.
The summer youth program kicked off with a three-day “Engage & LEAD” workplace essentials program where they learned soft skills like how to work with a team, communicating effectively and how to maintain great work ethic in any job. During this program, the students were also taught how to properly and effectively deliver an elevator pitch – a training that would come in extremely handy when they were asked to attend a CSCF curated job fair and “sell” themselves to employers the next day. That’s right, on the final day of the Engage & LEAD program, all students had to research employers attending the job fair, finalize their elevator pitches and prepare to get hired on the spot by our pre-selected employers.
Check out a few photos from our Engage & LEAD program held at the Central Florida Fairgrounds:
This was an exciting experience for students who may have never gotten this type of training. Rather than being placed into just any job, they were able to feel the pride of securing their jobs based on their own hard work – just like the real world. Furthermore, each student was provided with a checking/savings account and a debit card from CSCF partner Addition Financial. Similar to the “real world” these students are expected to maintain their account and fill out time sheets to ensure they receive accurate compensation on a weekly basis.
In addition to impacting hundreds of local youth, CSCF was able to secure a story on Spectrum News 13 and had the honor of having our Engage & LEAD program at the Mayor’s Holden Heights Community Center covered during primetime! Check out our segment below…
