BALTIMORE, MD – Humanim is pleased to announce that one of its highly regarded youth programs – Start on Success (SOS) – has been featured in a video documentary created by Baltimore-based New Lens. New Lens is a youth driven social justice organization that makes art and media about issues where a youth’s perspective can help to inspire change.
According to News Lens Executive Director Rebecca Yenawine, her organization works on a variety of social issues including employment, justice, health, and education issues. Given this focus area, New Lens found the SOS program to be a compelling example of a locally-based program that has provided the youth of Baltimore City with the tools necessary for workplace success. Specifically, Yenawine indicated that “New Lens is excited to include the SOS program in our series of videos about youth employment. It was clear from meeting the youth involved that Humanim and its staff are doing a great job of preparing them for the future. We hope that this video series will help others understand the importance of preparing youth for careers as well as illuminating effective strategies that already exist.”
The documentary itself features an overview of the SOS program, shared by Lolita Hunt, who is responsible for managing the Baltimore City component of the program. Hunt indicated that a key benefit of the SOS program is the opportunity it affords for high school students to acclimate to the “real world” through hands-on training and work experience. In addition, SOS participant Shabry Charles shared some of the high points of her internship as a dietary aide at the University of Maryland Medical Center.
Brandon Clarke, Operations Manager at New Lens and interviewer for this documentary noted that, like his organization, “SOS’s mission is to give young people the skills they need to further their careers–to get them from being just a high school graduate to being a person that is skilled in their field. Getting young people more jobs is what we’re both pushing for.”
SOS is an award winning program which has been operating in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Health System, the University of Maryland Medical System, and the University of Maryland since 1997. This program presently serves youth located in Baltimore City, as well as Anne Arundel, Harford, and Howard counties. This youth workforce program provides classroom training, mentoring, paid internships within hospital/university settings, job readiness training and job placement upon graduation. Each student is paired with a professional mentor from the host hospital.
Mary Manzoni, the VP of Workforce Development Services for Humanim commented, “This informative and highly creative video documentary prepared by New Lens is a great tribute to the hard work and dedication of both the participants and staff members involved in our Start on Success program. SOS has been able to offer valuable career development services and real-world job experiences to more than 700 young people during its fifteen year history.”