CareerSource Tampa Bay hires director of youth programs

Anyone who was lucky enough to have had a summer job knows it can be a rite of passage giving teens some spending cash and a peek into the working world. But it can also be equally beneficial for employers, particularly small businesses.

You know those little projects that have been stacking up because you don’t have an extra set of hands, or how you don’t have enough servers to keep your pizza shop open full hours? Well, CareerSource Tampa Bay Summer Hires Youth Employment Program might be able to give your business the boost it needs – and at no cost to you.

CareerSource Tampa Bay works with businesses and job candidates to leverage their training, retraining, and competitive opportunities in the workforce, including the Summer Hires program, in promoting today’s youth as tomorrow’s future workforce in Hillsborough County. The program, primarily for youngsters from low-income families, is funded through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Payroll services and career counseling are handled by CareerSource Tampa Bay. This year, about 800 youth will participate in the six-week paid internship, and will be paid $15 per hour, but we need more opportunities to ensure we meet that goal.

We’re looking for business partners to place motivated youth, between the ages of 16 to 24, in a summer job. Some of the areas we’re seeking positions in are manufacturing, construction and building trades, hospitality and tourism, logistics, transportation, retail, financial shared services, health care and information technology. This innovative program allows youth to explore careers in local government jobs, corporate, small business and nonprofit positions while employers reap the benefit of up to 20 hours of work, weekly, per individual.

This program, which began in 2019, introduces youth to the world of work and exposes them to new experiences, ideas and potential career paths for the future through hands-on, real-world work experience, in targeted and in-demand industries, while being paid.

What employers get are more workers without having to absorb the cost but it’s more than that, too. Employers get the opportunity to engage with a young adult and perhaps even become a lifelong mentor. It allows you to help shape the future workforce in Hillsborough County. And it might just put the wind back in your sails. Sometimes when you’ve been in an industry for a while, you might lose your passion. So, these young adults come in, and they bring innovative ideas, creativity and they are known to liven up workplaces by providing some refreshing energy and reinvigorating the environment around them. It definitely recharges the people who participate.

Since its inception, Summer Hires has provided about 1,800 youth with summer employment through paid internships and more than 112 local employers have participated in the program providing more than 900 positions for young adults in Hillsborough County.

This program would not work without the support of our business community. Our business community has been key to our success by meeting businesses’ short-term workforce needs, improving our regional talent pipelines and expanding workplace learning opportunities through our paid work experience model. We’re looking forward to expanding it to more businesses and, eventually, more young people. To learn more and to apply to be one of our businesses, visit us at EMPLOYER INFORMATION – CareerSource Tampa Bay.

Leondra Foster is the Director of Youth programs at CareerSource Tampa Bay.  Leondra is a first-generation college student and holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Saint Leo University. Leondra has devoted her career to serving people through the non-profit sector with an emphasis on the economic development and empowerment of all people in underserved communities.

Leondra is dedicated to creating safe spaces for youth where they can heal generational trauma, explore new behaviors, and develop healthy career relationships.

Leondra aspires to create community everywhere she goes and believes that “people can” when given the resource; but “people do” when given the encouragement and mentorship to develop.

You May Also Like

How Heart of Adoptions is hoping to raise awarenessfor kids in the adoption system

More than four decades ago, when she first started working in the complicated courts of family law, Jeanne Tate wasn’t looking to revolutionize adoption in Florida. She was simply a young female lawyer in a bustling, all-male office, determined to forge her own path. Searching for a way to specialize and build up her client

Feeding Tampa Bay is seeking support from community for Hub of Opportunity

Feeding Tampa Bay is close to reaching its fundraising goal for a new project call the Hub of Opportunity. “As Feeding Tampa Bay works to end hunger in our region, with more meals to our food insecure neighbors, now adding benefits-assistance and job training to bring families to true personal sustainability, a new facility is

Tampa Bay veteran-owned business donates more than $100,000 in medical bags to local organizations (PHOTOS)

Luminary Global, a St. Petersburg-based, veteran-owned company has donated more than $100,000 in StatPacks medical bags, since the start of 2023. Since the beginning of the year, Luminary has donated 246 medical bags, which are designed to be stocked with life-saving items for advanced life support or basic life support situations. The bag is also

How Live Tampa Bay is tackling the opioid crisis, one stigma at a time

Back in late 2020, when Jennifer Webb was approached by a friend about a potential leadership role for a new initiative, she had no idea that she stood at an intersection of fate.  Rick Homans, then president and chief executive officer of the Tampa Bay Partnership, and David Pizzo, West Central market president, reached out

Other Posts

Rise Up is expanding its mission in business

Tampa Bay area native Kristen Bracey discovered her life’s vocation while earning her master’s degree in social justice and human rights at Arizona State University. Working in ASU’s office of sex trafficking intervention research, Bracey had the opportunity to take part in a court-mandated diversionary program supported by Catholic Charities.   For six years, Bracey

Habitat for Humanity of Pinellas and West Pasco kicks off CEO Build week

Community leaders, from organizations in the Tampa Bay area, are working together to build a home for a local family, in the Lealman community, in St. Petersburg. This week, Habitat for Humanity of Pinellas and West Pasco Counties launched its second annual CEO Build, led by honorary Chairs Bill Brand, chief executive officer of Rue21

Sarasota Performing Arts Center Foundation announces $10M leadership contribution

Sarasota Performing Arts Center Foundation (also known as the Van Wezel Foundation) announced a $10 million contribution from the Paul Seed Fund at KBF CANADA to the Sarasota Performing Arts Center Foundation, to support the architect and design team in building a new performing arts center. Paul Seed founded StarTech.com, a company specializing in connectivity

Providing a ‘camelot’ for the community

For Michael DiBrizzi, president and chief executive officer of Camelot Community Care, there’s magic in every moment that’s spent helping a child, or family, in need. As a nonprofit organization dedicated to child welfare and behavioral health, Camelot serves more than 15,000 children and families, a day.  Although best known for facilitating foster care and