Skip to main content

Connecting Teens and Young Adults to Summer Internship and Job Opportunities in Red Hook



On Tuesday, May 8th, the Red Hook Community Justice Center hosted our 3rd Annual Youth Summer Internships and Jobs Fair at the Joseph A. Miccio/ NYCHA Community Center in Red Hook, Brooklyn! We opened our doors to over 200 young people between the ages of 14-24 from throughout Brooklyn, with a focus on Red Hook and southwest Brooklyn, in the hopes of providing young people with the chance to apply for paid and unpaid summer employment opportunities at the Justice Center, local businesses and non-profit organizations.


The Red Hook Community Justice Center began organizing the Summer Internship and Job Fair in response to high unemployment levels among local teens and their strong desire to find work during the summer. Estimates show that the teenage and young adult unemployment rate is substantially higher – about 30% - compared to the local unemployment rate of 9%. Finding summer jobs and internships is a rite of passage for our young people where they gain skills that have been shown to benefit their short-term academic goals and long-term professional careers. We want youth to gain experience and skills in professional fields, network, and help build their resume. Most importantly we want young people to occupy their time during the summer with positive experiences and opportunities.


Some of the many organizations who participated in the fair were Exalt, Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow, Hook Productions, Groundswell Mural Project, Department of Youth and Community Development, the 76th Precinct’s Youth Explorers program, Councilwoman Sara Gonzalez’s Office, the F.A.S.T. Track Program, and Lutheran Family Health Center Community Health Corps; all of which have a deep rooted commitment to the youth in Red Hook and neighboring communities. In addition to these organizations, the Red Hook Community Justice Center and Center for Court Innovation (CCI) also recruited for job and internship opportunities through their New York Juvenile Justice Corps Program (AmeriCorps), Red Hook Community Justice Center Summer Internship Program, CCI’s Youth Justice Board Program, and our partnership program from the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center, Youth Organizing to Save our Streets (Y.O.S.O.S.). Educational opportunities were also available, providing vital scholarship information for future high school graduates.


We thank all of the attendees and organizations that participated in this year’s job fair; and we will hopefully see many of these organizations and more next year for our 4th Annual fair. 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Peacemaking in Red Hook

Raymond Deal, Traditional Program Specialist, Shiprock District Court, Navajo Nation and Gloria Benally, Program Coordinator, Navajo Nation, train future Red Hook Peacemakers After an intensely trying period in Red Hook in the weeks following Hurricane Sandy, building, strenghtening, and healing relationships between residents and organizations has become crucial. This past weekend, we took a step towards preparing the neighborhood for the hard work ahead with a two-day workshop with peacemakers from the Navajo Nation for residents we are training to serve as peacemakers here in Red Hook. A new project from the Center for Court Innovation's Tribal Justice Exchange , peacemaking is a traditional Native American approach to justice. While the exact form peacemaking takes varies among tribes, it usually consists of one or more peacemakers—often community elders—who gently guide a conversation involving not only those directly involved in an offense or conflict but family

Supporting the Staten Island Youth Justice Center at "Inside/Outside Legislative Theatre" Performance

On June 4th, a group of the Red Hook Youth Court members and staff went to see the "Theater of the Oppressed NYC" performance at the New School. Before attending this event, the youth court members had no idea that anything like this went on! While there, we learned that 12 different legislative laws were changed through something called "Legislative Theatre." The audience members get to be "spect-actors," which is great because the actual audience members got to participate in the play themselves and share their ideas. The performances last night were put on by members of the Staten Island Youth Justice Center (part of the Center for Court Innovation Family). These two plays dealt with real life issues such as getting stopped for not paying your bus fare, arriving late to school and getting sent to the principal's office because of the "zero tolerance policy," getting into fights at school, not knowing one's rights, and being raciall