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Jamia Houston considers the Hope Center for Kids her home.
The 18-year-old Omaha Central High School senior has always been pushed by her parents to succeed, but the Hope Center, she said, was the extra support she needed to stay on track and help prepare her to get and hold a job.
In the 10 years she's been a member of the nonprofit organization at 20th and Burdette Streets, Houston has taken classes and workshops, learning communication and social skills, how to dress appropriately for a job interview, money and time management and punctuality. "We've always learned if you're on time, you're late," she said.
She's worked at the Hope Center for three years. This year, she was given a leadership role, running the front desk as a receptionist for about 24 hours a week. The Hope Center even helped her land a job working for Red Mango downtown last summer while the College World Series was under way.
Part of the Hope Center's mission since it was founded in 1998 has been to help kids attain and maintain jobs. But now its executive director and founder, the Rev. Ty Schenzel, is working to take that a step further by opening the Hope Employment Academy next summer.
"The Employment Academy is injecting steroids into what we already are doing," he said. "Our team realized that north Omaha's greatest economic need is not job creation, but it is employability creation."
Schenzel said the reason so many kids join gangs is because they know they're unemployable. "It's either choose the American economy or choose the underground economy and all the risks that come with that."
Schenzel believes the academy can have a positive impact on crime and graduation rates.
For about the last five years, the Hope Center has provided in-house paid employment to 40 of its members, either at the Hope Center or at Hope Skate, the center's public skating rink. Of those 40 members, 39 have received high school diplomas. The last one is working on a GED.
The nonprofit, which offers education, recreation, leadership and spiritual programs, aims to provide a positive, safe place for about 1,000 youths ages 5 to 19 over the course of a year. The center currently employs about 20 high-school-aged members.
The Hope Center is completely funded by individual partners, businesses, foundations and churches. About 99 percent of the members are African-American and are from north Omaha.
The planned $2 million Hope Employment Academy, which is being funded by private donations and is getting closer to its funding goal, is set to begin construction next month.
A former multipurpose room will be gutted and transformed into five classrooms, a mezzanine and offices. It will have a reception area in the front to simulate what it would look like at many businesses when going to a job interview.
Schenzel said he hopes to begin the first semester of the academy in June. The following semester will begin in January 2013.
The Hope Employment Academy will be open to any sophomore, junior or senior in Omaha who is a Hope Center member. Membership is $10 a year.
There will be an application, assessment and placement process, and 25 students will make up the first class.
Schenzel said he wants to start with smaller group to ensure the academy is using the best model. Eventually, the number of students will increase to 50, then 100 and top out at around 125.
Although the curriculum is still being defined, the overall goal of the academy is to make students employable and help them land good jobs outside of the Hope Center within a year.
The academy will teach students how to respect authority, approach a boss with a problem, dress appropriately, create a résumé, fill out a job application and everything else associated with the workforce, Schenzel said.
He said a lot of the Hope Center's members don't have the basic life skills so many others take for granted such as a firm handshake, good eye contact, punctuality, relating to authority with respect and accepting criticism.
"Those basic things are not even on the radar screen for many kids," he said.
Schenzel will hire specialists in math and reading to work one-on-one with the academy's students since "employment and education go hand in hand." The students will learn basic keyboarding and computer skills, and interpersonal communication skills. And they will have mock job interviews.
Money management also will be a key lesson for the students. As long as the students are meeting the expectations of the academy by attending school and going to the Hope Center for homework tutoring, they will receive a weekly $50 stipend. For some of them, it will be their first opportunity to earn money.
They'll learn about bank accounts, direct deposit and the importance of building good credit.
Once they are ready for a job, Schenzel said, the first step will be a manual labor position at the Hope Center. Then, they could move up to a position working with children (if they qualify after a background check). The next job level would be a position at Hope Skate as a skate guard or a pizza party host. The final step would be a job outside of the Hope Center.
"It's a progression," Schenzel said. "We feel it's going to be powerful and give kids vocational hope. We are really excited about this."
Schenzel has already worked out a partnership with some McDonald's and Runza restaurants and a local moving company to provide jobs to the students who are ready to be hired outside of the Hope Center.
Schenzel said he also plans to work closely with the Urban League of Nebraska and Goodwill of Omaha so if students of the academy don't pursue higher education, they can utilize the employability programs for adults at those organizations.
"We really are filling a niche of high school employability," Schenzel said.
The project will have a ground-breaking ceremony on Jan. 27.
Houston, who will attend Northwest Missouri State next year to study business and marketing, said she hopes to someday have her own center for children to help them achieve goals like the Hope Center did for her.
"I definitely think coming to the Hope Center expanded my horizons," she said. "I didn't have time to focus on the negative things because I was doing so much here. It has really shaped me into a better person and a better employee."
Contact the writer:
402-444-1336, leia.mendoza@owh.com
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