Let’s take a brief moment to celebrate the growing success of the Mayor’s SummerWorks program. This year we’ve seen record engagement from the business community and non-profits alike. We’ve always had fantastic program anchors like Kentucky Kingdom, Humana, and Thorntons (just to name a few). All of whom renewed their commitment to give our region’s youth their first taste of the working world. But we are proud to report that an additional 30 companies, recruited by GLI, agreed to create an additional 225 new positions in 2017.

GLI is honored to play a role in expanding opportunities for young people and all of these businesses and nonprofits are stepping up in a big way to say, “You know what? We can be the change that our community needs. We can take steps to solve the problems of underachievement, unemployment, and hopelessness in our communities.” And we thank them for their engagement.

SummerWorks bridges the gap between the classroom and the office. GLI’s mission is to grow the regional economy and we cannot do that without a robust, well-trained workforce. Right now there are multiple groups on the local and state levels that are working hard to make sure we can fill all the new jobs being created. We applaud each of them and are especially supportive of KentuckianaWorks’ efforts to make sure everyone living in our region can be successful in finding and keeping jobs. We also applaud Mayor Greg Fisher for growing the program to more than 5,000 summer jobs overall.

SummerWorks gives young people ages 16-21 the opportunity to earn a paycheck. It gives them real-world experience, to see what a career can be and where it can take them. Any time a business hires an employee they are taking a risk. The rewards of that risk can be immeasurable for not only the business, but also for the individual hired. We see proof of this through the success of this program. It has been the spark that has set hundreds of young people from our region on the path to college, technical training, apprenticeships, or directly into the workforce.

Without opportunities at an early age, it is nearly impossible to envision, much less succeed, in anything different from the circumstances that surround you. SummerWorks employers recognize this and are willing to provide those opportunities to stretch young people’s horizons.

If you know a young person who is still looking for a summer job or needs to be looking for one, go online to Summerworks.org/jobs to get them to apply to an open position. The current job market in our region is hot. We need everyone who is able and willing to get in the game to sustain and grow our region and its economy.

If you are a business that would like to participate for the summer 2018 cycle of this program, please reach out to KentuckianaWorks or Greater Louisville Inc. We are ready to build on the success of this summer for next year.

It is up to all of us to be the change we want to see in our world. All of the companies participating in the Mayor’s SummerWorks Program are doing just that. On behalf of your Metro Chamber of Commerce, thank you for your engagement. Now let’s get to work!