We have successfully closed out Summer WorkReady 2020!!—But more about that soon!!

During our last week of programming, our youth completed their final Naviance activities! Our internship participants completed activities in digital literacy like creating a personal statement, writing their elevator pitch and a creating support network. Our work experience participants also completed activities in digital literacy as well as participated in a workshop called “Public Speaking 101: Giving the Elevator Pitch Live.” In this workshop, we had guest speaker, Alissa Steele, advertising specialist for the Phillies. She shared her experience in advertising and marketing and shared how important it is to brand ourselves well! Our youth performed their elevator pitches live with Alissa, who shared tips to edit their elevator pitches, if needed. 

On Friday, August 21^st, we hosted a grab-and-go event to thank our participants and their families for being apart! Participants received a certificate of completion and some “swag” that included a backpack, some cool accessories for their cell phones and a t-shirt to commemorate our summer experience! We also provided parents/guardians with a tote bag and t-shirt. Lastly, we were able to award each participant an additional $100 for completing the program this summer; a surprise to all our participants!

At the completion of this summer, our youth now have a few recipes they learned, new plants they continue to grow and they participated in other activities for life development! We also had a few summer successes: two of our youth successfully obtained part-time jobs in the Philadelphia area and five of our youth successfully started their post-secondary education in the Philadelphia area and abroad.

This summer experience has been one for the books! While this summer had its own set of challenges, it also demonstrated the ability to create non-traditional programs and work experiences to better serve our youth in Philadelphia! We applaud our youth for showing resilience through the entire process.

We would like to thank Executive Director Mitch Litter, Deputy Executive Director Sharon Clinton and the staff at the Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity (CEO) for your support and assistance throughout our summer program. Thank you to the Youth Strategies Unit for assisting with implementation and facilitation of programming, especially to Zoraida Cordero and Marylissa Barbosa-Fish for stepping up to lead sessions and Tameka Williams for creating and leading the entire home gardening curriculum. We would also like to thank all of our guest speakers for their time, energy and knowledge. Lastly, thank you to our participants and their families! They endured through the changes of WorkReady and participated in the entire program virtually! They have persevered through many challenges within the last few months and we are proud of all of them for successfully completing Summer WorkReady 2020! We wish them well for this new school year!