BridgeWorks

BridgeWorks is a highly successful job skills and employment program for low income youth between the ages of 14 – 18. Funding comes through WorkSource and a grant from the Comcast Corporation. 

BridgeWorks participants grow and learn through:
  • Employment Training
  • Employment Shadowing
  • After School Tutoring
  • Field Trips
  • Internships and Work Experience
  • Case Management

BridgeWorks provides opportunities for 60 teens in employment training and job placement; case management and education and employment related field trips.
 
Students have an opportunity to visit work sites in their preferred employment interest and shadow a working professional.

Latavaius-cooking-[2]
Above: Latavaius at work in the kitchen.

Case managers assist with activities and tutoring, monitor and assist students in their academic progress, and make monthly school visits to discuss progress and attendance.  Each year during spring break, BridgeWorks students go on a college tour, visiting colleges around the state. BridgeWorks also offers tours of local college campuses including FCCJ and University of North Florida.

The final culmination of a year of training and preparation is an opportunity for over 40 students to receive a summer job. Students who are high school juniors and/or seniors and who excel in their BridgeWorks employment training can be placed at Baptist, St. Vincent’s or Shands Hospitals with a full time subsidized summer job through the Baptist/Bridge Partnership, “Tipping the Scale” Program.

Latavaius

Latavious Smith: Setting Life Goals and Working for Them

With a big smile and an outgoing personality, Latavious Smith is a bright star from the BridgeWorks Program. He started attending The Bridge when his grandmother told him he needed a place that would help him do something with his life and get off of the streets.  

Through the BridgeWorks program, Latavious has followed one of his interests - preparing and serving food -with an internship at the catering/ events department at the community college. He got to cater events, prepare a menu and learn various cooking techniques. Because of his dedication and hard work, Latavious won the Most Outstanding Intern Award in 2008.  He chose to intern at the culinary college for a second summer in 2009.  

Summer of 2008, Latavious had another life changing experience. He was one of six Bridge students selected to attend the Youth Theological Initiative (YTI) at Emory University in Atlanta. YTI targets student leaders from all over the nation. The three week experience gave him opportunities to get to know teens from other backgrounds and to become more socially conscious. Part of the curriculum was community service and Latavious chose to work in a restaurant run by clients at a homeless shelter.  

With the direction and opportunities provided by The Bridge, now Latavious has a career goal and a passion: he wants to be a chef. He would like to open his own restaurant for the homeless. He graduated with his high school diploma from a magnet high school with a focus on culinary arts and is planning to attend a Jacksonville culinary school.