So very happy today after getting an email from one of the HOPE Project graduates, Alyssia Suarez interview Saturday with a government contractor in Herndon VA. She was hired on the spot! She starts in a couple weeks. What makes her story so great is that she is about to start a job that pays $42,000 a year and she is only 22. What makes her story so amazing is that this time last year she was unemployed and without many options. Alyssia currently works for a Dept. of Defense Contractor in Northern Virginia on the help desk. The HOPE Project program continues to amaze. Visit the website to read more success stories. www.hopeprojectdc.org
I continue to hear people all over the DC area complaining that there are no jobs, it's simply not true. There are PLENTY of jobs for people with in demand skills. For example just last week during the first day of the Fall HOPE Project training program I got a request from IT recruiter Brandon Berlinrut of Veredus a staffing agency for HP Enterprise Services. Brandon stopped by the class to recruit our new HOPE Project students for several help desk/call center positions. Yes you heard me, Brandon has several positions available. What we are dealing with in the DMV is a skills gap the chronically unemployed and young adults simply don't have the required skill to compete with the highly educated and highly skilled workers in DC. So when we see the August Jobs report article on Bloomberg describe the shortage of skilled workers I simply laugh because we've been talking about it for years now. Check out this interesting BET News article about the HOPE Project program, click here.
Wanted to share the my most recent interview. Bruce Depuyt of News Channel 8 wanted us to come on and talk about the HOPE Project success. I used this time to celebrate the success of the graduates and showcase how the HOPE Project graduates have succeeded when other young people including college graduates are struggling. The HOPE graduates have an average salary equal to college graduates, $35,000 a year. We also introduced the HOPE Project campaign to train 1,000 young people with skills that lead directly to a job and career. I decided not to spend my interview criticizing the DC City Council or mayor for their lack of ideas to improve the unemployment of young people. Sadly I introduced the HOPE Project recently to a council member and my introduction included an employment report of the previous 2 years success, offer letters from dozens of students they are now working on major federal government contracts, I talked about how we have IT recruiters and government contractors emailing and calling me regularly looking for talent. The council members response was... "So what can I do to help" Sad, Sad, Sad. I just gave him a blueprint to help hundreds of unemployed people and his response is "What can I do to help" and people wonder why things are so bad in DC for certain groups of people.
