Training the Next Generation
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Boys & Girls Club of the Ozarks implements Missouri Forty-hour Internship Tryout, creating early workforce exposure for its youth.
Beginning at 2:30 p.m. every weekday afternoon, the Boys & Girls Club of the Ozarks welcomes 450 students into a supportive, loving environment. The afternoon begins with homework help, a hot meal and recreational activities before moving into workshops focusing on three core areas.
“The Club focuses on three main areas and that’s academic achievement, healthy lifestyles and character and citizenship,” says Stoney Hays, CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of the Ozarks and recipient of the 2017 National Executive of the Year award from The Professional Association with Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
Some of the Club’s offerings include STEM- based programs, a rock-climbing wall, a game room, homework help and tutoring, a gymnasium and classes focused on making good choices. The Club reaches students on all levels but, with the help of Hays most recently started focusing on helping them succeed once they graduate from high school through the Missouri Forty-hour Internship Tryout (FIT).
Through FIT, students graduate from two of the club’s workforce development programs before applying for the internship. The programs, Money Matters and Career Launch, are designed to expose youth to personal finance and career choices before they take the next step after graduation.
The first internship program accepted up to 30 students who worked 40 unpaid hours during their spring break. Beforehand, students completed a questionnaire detailing their likes and interests, which determined their placement with one of the 10 partnering businesses, including Branson Airport, CoxHealth, State Farm Insurance and Arvest Bank.
Eventually, FIT will be offered more frequently. Hays says the Club hopes to make the program more flexible, meaning students could potentially work one day a week for eight weeks instead of fitting it all into one school break period.
“We are trying to help these young people become more informed about the world of work and introduce them early,” Hays says.
MANY WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
Make a difference in your community with these local nonprofits.
ELEVATE BRANSON
What started as a Thanksgiving meal has grown into a weekly service providing more than 1,400 free meals to the sheltered homeless and working poor population of Branson. The nonprofit organization offers an employment training program, access to a health care program, community barbecues, service projects, mental health assessments and more.
SKAGGS FOUNDATION
Working to make Stone and Taney counties a healthier place to live, the Skaggs Foundation supports community wellness initiatives. The organization holds fundraising and community educational events throughout the year, offers diabetes testing supplies, provides meals for cancer patients, supports a community-wide substance abuse recovery initiative and awards cardiac and pulmonary rehab scholarships.
FAITH COMMUNITY HEALTH
Operating as an income-based health care facility, Faith Community Health offers primary medical, vision and mental health services as well as prescriptions and a KWIKCare Clinic to Taney and Stone counties. The nonprofit organization serves as a means of access to health care to those working low-income jobs.