(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) - President Obama's stimulus funding is already at work in Nashville, helping hundreds of Tennessee teens prepare and enter the workforce. Fifty three of those teens have been through stimulus-funded classes this week offered through Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee, in partnership with the Nashville Career Advancement Center. The teens, ages
14-17, have participated in a week-long orientation to assist them in finding summer employment. The orientation included job readiness skills classes to prepare them to be successful in their summer jobs, job safety skills and learning how to budget their money.
Next Monday, June 8, the students will be employed at various locations throughout the community including the YMCA, Metro Public Schools and the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency. The students who were chosen for the program face economic disadvantages or some other type of disability or risk factor. The stimulus program requires that the teens work no more than thirty hours a week and they will be paid minimum wage.
"We are very excited to have the opportunity to provide the students with a basic foundation to employment. Our students will have fun, earn money and develop a better perspective of how companies are structured in order to operate successfully."
Sen. Thelma Harper (D. Nashville) will be on hand at 1:30 p.m. this afternoon at Cohn Adult High School, located at 4805 Park Avenue in Nashville, to send the teens off to their new jobs with confidence and enthusiasm. The teens have been supported throughout the first week by five job coaches and will be followed throughout the summer by 16 job coaches.
For more information about the stimulus funded programs, please visit www.recovery.gov.
About Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee, Inc.
For over 50 years, Goodwill has provided job training and job placement free of charge to people with disabilities or other barriers to employment through the sale of donated items. Goodwill has served 3,358 people to date in 2009 in the communities we serve in middle and west Tennessee. For more information on Goodwill's Career Solutions, retail stores, and donation centers, please visit www.giveit2goodwill.org or call 1-800-545-9231.
Share the story:
