TAMPA, Fla. — More than a hundred students in the Tampa Bay area have jobs this summer, and it’s all thanks to a new program offered by the Tampa Housing Authority.
The Tampa Housing Authority has officially launched its Youth Employment Summer (YES) program, and officials say it’s perfect timing when it comes to teens being busy for the summer.
Young people aged 14 to 18 who are high school students or recent graduates were eligible for the program, and they had to live in one of the Tampa Housing Authority communities.
Officials said they had over a thousand applicants, and they narrowed that number down to 103 students in the program.
The program kicked off this week, and it started with touring the housing authority properties. Participants also heard from experts about professional development.
They will also have a lesson on financial literacy while they sign up for their brand-new bank account.
It’s part of what officials at the housing authority say is going to help these young people be successful and help their families in the process.
Mzcarrington Jones is a 17-year-old participant, and she has plans of her own with her job at the housing authority.
“I was preparing for college and everything, and when I heard about the job from my mom, I was like, oh, I should do this. I think it would be fun and a good chance to get out of the house,” she said. “It would be very helpful because it will take some burden off my parents so they can buy more stuff than my little siblings.”
Housing Authority Interim Director of Public Relations, Lashune Harris said participants will get experience with customer service, working with the CEO, and understanding how they manage their properties.
“The important thing is not just work; we want to feed into these students. We want to teach them. We want to develop them, we want to show them love and that people care about them and their well-being,” Harris said.
This is the first year for the Youth Employment Summer Program, and even though things like so-called “teen takeovers” weren’t part of the planning process months ago, it isn’t far from the minds of officials here.
“The value of using your time this way as opposed to using it any other way. Like if you didn’t have this job to come to for the next seven weeks, what are you gonna be doing? We got a thousand and two hundred applicants for this program and we hired 103,” said Tampa Housing Authority Assistant Director of Facilities and Maintenance Cornelle Maxfield.
Students between the ages of 14 to 18 who live in Tampa Housing Authority communities were eligible for the jobs and students like 15-year-old Isiah Williams who will be impacted in more ways than one.
“I wanted this job cause I knew it was gonna help me and my mom was a single mother of six so to take some weight off of her,” he said.
Financial literacy, customer service, and not a lot of idle time are part of what officials say is going to make this program a success long after the summer ends.
The Youth Employment Summer Program started this week and runs for seven weeks. Officials at the housing authority are hoping for a success and the ability to offer even more jobs next year.