Celebrating Hard Work: O'Donnell Heights Club Manager William Howard, YouthWorks Summer Worker Dwayne and O'Donell Heights Club Lead Youth Coordinator Zarif Myles celebrating the achievement of a great summer of youth mentorship.
Over the course of this summer, Boys & Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Baltimore (BGCMB) hosted 25 youth workers from YouthWorks, a program created by the City of Baltimore's Mayor's Office of Employment Development, who served across our five Baltimore City Clubs. This program offers area youth between the ages of 14-21 the opportunity to gain valuable real-life work experience while also building their resume and gaining income. The youth workers were selected to join our team through an interview process, where their interests and skills were assessed. They played an important role in the success of our summer camp this year. The youth assisted in supervising the members and helped to make programming engaging as well as the various tasks each were assigned.
“I love helping kids,” Dwayne, a youth worker at our O’Donnell Heights Club, says when illustrating why he enjoyed he helping Club members and staff during the summer. “I liked seeing the kids grow just during the short time I was there. [Boys & Girls Clubs] has inspired me to want to work with youth.”
After completing the required hours, Dwayne decided to come back for an extra week. With the summer coming to an end, Dwayne hopes to be a mentor for youth and is excited at the prospect of joining Boys & Girls Clubs in the future. William Howard, Club Manager at our O’Donnell Heights Club, spoke very highly of Dwayne.
“He was a phenomenal youth worker. He jumped right into the work and was very dependable for the whole summer. [Dwayne] loved working with the youth and never backed down from a challenge.” Howard is extremely appreciative of all the youth workers who served our youth during this season. He views the experience as a great one for young people to get important work experience and build skills that are transferable to other career fields. “We helped the youth workers develop professional skills,” Howard begins. “Mainly, we emphasized the importance of accountability and dependability this summer. These two skills are building blocks for a successful career.”
Our mentors are committed to guiding our members to their great futures. Club Managers like William Howard are the reason why our mission is a thriving one. We were grateful to have had such positive and caring youth workers such as Dwayne mentor our youth this summer and are looking forward to hosting more in the future.
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