In East Tampa, this summer program helps teens prepare for their futures

TAMPA — In a classroom that gradually filled with the smell of fried chicken as students wolfed down their lunches, Alonzo Godwin thought about what he wanted for his future.

A stable salary. A relaxing retirement for his grandmother. His own apartment. A truck.

It was the first day of a summer program that he hoped would help him achieve this life, and he was looking at a worksheet on his desk, asking what his financial goals were.

“Don’t spend money on things you don’t need,” the 18-year-old noted. “Save your money as much as possible. »

He is one of 36 participants in the city-funded summer program for East Tampa teens, which began Monday and aims to help them think about their financial futures and career paths.

The city launched Career Explorations program in 2006 as a way to ensure the safety and productivity of youth during the summer. But he faced years of criticism that teenagers in the predominantly black neighborhood were simply picking up trash in the hot Florida sun in the name of professional experience.

This year, the program has evolved.

Participants will spend three days a week working for the city's Neighborhood Improvement Division – enforcing code, mowing lawns and, of course, picking up trash. But they will also spend one day a week touring city buildings, talking with elected officials and learning skills like networking and budgeting in the classroom.

They will be paid $15 per hour for 32 hours per week, from the beginning of June to the end of July. Godwin, who recently graduated from high school, wants to save as much of his salary as possible in his newly opened savings account.

“The program helps you with your resume, with your relationships, but also with how to be yourself,” he said.

Godwin also participated in the program, run by the East Tampa Community Redevelopment Agency, last year. Having the chance to meet Mayor Jane Castor was a highlight, he said.

“Try to take advice from people who are where you want to be,” he recalled telling the group.

He doesn't yet know exactly where he wants to be, he said. “But I’m working hard to understand it.”

Maybe he'll become a firefighter, he thinks. Maybe he'll join the army. In October, he begins a four-month training program at Hillsborough Community College to learn the basics of becoming a power lineman.

Sevion Daniels, 17 and a growing senior, is also participating in the program, excited for the opportunity to meet with leaders from across the city to explore various career paths. He plans to join the Air Force. Or maybe he'll work for the city's wastewater department, like his father.

For now, he's grateful for the chance to earn a salary during the summer months and improve his job search skills as he plans to graduate next year .

“These are skills for life,” he said Monday, after a training session at Tampa Bay Federal Credit Union.

The week before, the teens had gathered at a community center to get their bearings, as rain fell outside one evening in early June.

“The community fought to get this program for you,” Ed Hundley, one of the coordinators, told the crowd. “Make the most.”

Godwin, sitting next to his grandmother, nodded.

“Consider yourself profoundly lucky,” added Connie Burton, a longtime East Tampa community organizer, among those who pushed the city to make the program more focused on career development than street cleaning. She would like the cohort size to double.

“We were pushing for more young people to come,” she told the teens. “Maybe next year.”

Last year, Tampa Communications Director Adam Smith told the Tampa Bay Times that he believed everyone in the city involved in the program thought improvements were needed. Council members said it was unacceptable that the focus on trash pickup was specific to East Tampa, prompting staff to commit to an overhaul.

Even if some of the objectives set out last year are still not realized (participants, for example, still have no choice of working for a municipal division other than neighborhood improvement) and manual labor remains, as one program coordinator put it, “meat and potatoes.” » of the program, the students were grateful to be there. Places fill up quickly.

When asked what they would do with their summer without the program, most simply said, “I don’t know.”

Ronnisha Simmons, 16, added that she was happy not to spend her summers stuck inside, playing on her phone. Instead, she could explore what her city had to offer.

“I want to know my options,” said Simmons, an aspiring lawyer and one of the few women in the program. “There’s a whole world there.”

As the clock read 3:30 p.m. Monday, the teens picked up their bags, filled with new uniforms and notebooks scribbled with notes from the day's sessions, and headed for the door. They streamed in under the afternoon sun, boxes of their new work boots under their arms.

They would be home early tomorrow to lace up those boots and get to work.