The Owensboro Youth Empowerment Summit is hosting “Teen Week” starting today and lasting through Friday. In addition to the usual employment opportunities on display during the teen job fair, there will be workshops to aid teens with other life and career-readiness skills.
Organizer DeMarcus Curry said that after hosting a few job fairs, he realized that bringing employers on site was only part of the mission to prepare the teens for their next step after high school.
“It would also be a better idea to help the teens do the mock interviews and resume prep first. So then when it comes to the actual team job fair, they’ll be ready for that instead of doing it all at that one day,” Curry said.
Each day of Teen Week will focus on a different topic. The first three nights, events will be held at the Daviess County Public Library, running from 4-6 p.m. daily.
On Tuesday will be a financial workshop in partnership with Fifth Third Bank to teach banking basics and financial literacy.
On Wednesday, volunteers will be available to review and prepare teens’ resumes and conduct mock interviews. Both events will be at the library.
On Thursday, various businesses will conduct in-person interviews and present teens with information on current job opportunities.
The final program on Friday will be hosted at the H.L. Neblett Community Center from 5-7 p.m. Curry said they are hosting “Stop the BS” — a conversation with counselors and other speakers about preventing bullying and suicide. The program was last held in 2019, but he was inspired to bring it back this year.
“I want to give the youth the opportunity to share their experiences dealing with bullying,” Curry said.
Curry said he thinks making the 4-day event will be beneficial for the teens who participate, noting that adults who poured their knowledge into him when he was young gave him something positive to do.
“Motivating people to actually do something positive in the community, that’s what got me started doing this,” Curry said.
