Mentorship Meets Apprenticeship To Lift Our Youth

If you look beyond the strong campaign rhetoric of our recent presidential election, there was a cry from our cities and rural regions alike—how do we participate in this new innovation economy filled with technology, overseas competition, and shrinking incomes? Locally, we are seeing promising action that will go a long way to help our youth.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Sun Coast just launched a new mentoring program for local high school students. The initiative is a positive community effort to better prepare our youth for life and career success right in their hometowns.

“Beyond School Walls” matches at-risk students with professionals at partnering businesses, who will host their “Littles” on a regular basis at their workplace. It kicked off by pairing a group of Venice High School sophomores with senior staffers at Venice Regional Bayfront Health, one of the region’s largest employers. Next, Riverview High students will meet their mentors at CAE Healthcare, a maker of medical patient simulators with customers around the globe.

To read more, please visit SRQ Magazine to read Mark Pritchett's November 20 SRQ Daily guest column.