Affordable Housing Paso Robles receives $30,000 grant
Grant to fund paid summer internships for local teens
Grant to fund paid summer internships for local teens– Affordable Housing Paso Robles announced it received a $30,000 grant from Bank of America to help support its YouthWorks program. For the second year in a row, the grant enables six new high school students from migrant families and six current YouthWorks program members to participate in a two-month paid summer program that provides hands-on work experience and job skills training.
Part of Paso Robles Housing Authority, YouthWorks has been working with low-income teens to provide hands-on job experience and essential job skills training for more than ten years. This summer, students worked with the Oak Park affordable housing community to develop skills in farming, trash maintenance, community area maintenance, and office work such as payroll. The students received training on everything from interview skills to career exploration, financial aid, building credit, personal finance, resume building, and more.
Without access to career skills-building opportunities, many young people may be left behind in a fast-changing job market, leading to higher rates of youth unemployment. The YouthWorks program has proven successful in aligning students with skills needed to go on and secure paid jobs. Approximately 95-percent of YouthWorks students go on to other paid employment. Last summer, for example, half of the students who participated in the program went on to work full-time paid jobs in the Paso Robles community.
“At YouthWorks we aim to intervene early and often in the lives of our students to help them achieve outcomes more positive than statistics would predict,” said Betian Webb, Director of Community Services, Paso Robles Housing Authority. “Local partnerships and support from organizations such as Bank of America allow us to continue to provide youth with employment experience, a paycheck and encouragement to create their own future story.”
“Paid internship opportunities for teens are essential to gain positive employment experience while developing a diverse pipeline of talent as they enter the local workforce. We’re excited to continue to help YouthWorks fund these paid internships and hands-on job experience especially for students from disadvantaged backgrounds,” said Greg Bland, president, San Luis Obispo, Bank of America.”
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