WCBGC partners with NorthEast Georgia Regional Commission for Workforce Development

For Ashley Hackel preparing our youth for the workforce is critical to their development as young adults. That’s why for the last year she’s been partnering with the Walton County Boys & Girls Club. And this summer she’s connecting WCBGC Alumni with employment at the Club.

“I am the Summer Youth Associate of an agency called the NorthEast Georgia Regional Commission for Workforce Development, an organization that forms non-financial worksite agreements with local governments, schools, and non-profit agencies to provide training and serve as worksites for Summer Youth Work Experience participants,” Hackel shared. “The WIOA program with the Boys & Girls Club of Walton County provides the framework for workforce preparation and employment system designed to meet the needs of the local employers, job seekers, and those who want to further their careers.  The Boys & Girls Club of Walton County has been an agency through the Workforce Initiative and Opportunity Act (WIOA) to connect youth and their careers in youth leadership and character development.”

Hackel adds that this partnership has been a wonderful opportunity to provide on the job training to help youth gain the necessary skills and abilities to perform specific tasks and develop desirable work behavior.

“The youth in this program are selected for the Boys & Girls Club through proper interviewing to maintain and certify that participants can develop certain skills and abilities,” she said. 

Lynn E. Hill, WCBGC Director, said, “This program allows the partnership to have a two-fold effect in the process. The youth, who work in this program can learn through BGC, how to plan and schedule, and create and establish good work ethics.”

“We are so thrilled to have a Club alumnus working with us this summer through our partnership with WIOA,” Hill added. “Destinee Long is an ideal role model for our youth and she’s learning valuable work ethic skill sets while working as a Youth Development Professional, such as scheduling, coordinating programming and directing Club members in activities.”