Hiring Hoosiers is a new initiative from RTV6 that works to connect Hoosiers to employment opportunities, career development resources, training programs and educational paths. In our Hiring Hoosiers reports we are taking a closer look at barriers to employment and things that get in the way of people getting the jobs they need to support themselves and their families. For more information, visit HiringHoosiers.com.
INDIANAPOLIS — Inspirational teens wanted. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Indianapolis is offering a summer paycheck that comes with a future payoff in skills that are beneficial on a resume.
Every year 7,000 young Hoosiers are served by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Indianapolis. It takes at least 200 employees to keep the five facility-based clubs and five school-based sites up and running for members. Right now, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Indianapolis are actively looking for local teens to work for them, teens that want to inspire and motivate kids.
Elijah Leonard, 16, already has his dream job in mind.
"I want to open my own athletic training facility for the youth," Leonard, a club member and summer employee at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Indianapolis, said. "I want it to be based around less fortunate kids, but everybody is welcome."
LEARN MORE | Career opportunities with Boys & Girls Clubs of Indianapolis
Future career plans are why Leonard chooses to spend his summer's working as a youth group leader at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Indianapolis.
"As far as working here, I just want to touch each and every kid I come in contact with and have a positive impact on them in their lives," Leonard said. "And then basically in the long run, the future goal, I want to develop leadership skills and different skills necessary for my future career that I want to do."
Leonard, a junior at Ben Davis High School, has been a club member since 2016. He worked at the club in the summer of 2018 and will do so again in 2019.
The Indianapolis clubs opens up more than 40 additional hourly positions for the summer months. As the club wants their former members to be part of their staff, they also want any local teens who have a passion to serve Indy's youth to apply.
"We are looking for outgoing youth," Maggie Lewis, CEO and executive director of Boys & Girls Clubs of Indianapolis, said. "Youth that are striving to become leaders in our community, youth that are active in school activities, and obviously kiddos that have gone through our programs. Those are the best advocates for what we do here."
Lewis says they are looking for teens to work as group leaders and lifeguards over the summer months.
"If you are looking for a career working with young folks, this is a great place to start," Lewis said. "If you are looking to go into an education field, I think the skills that they learn here of working with diverse groups, working with young people, being a leader, working arts, crafts, different skills like that, they can take those skills then again and apply them going back to a school setting or in their future careers."
It is an invaluable tool for Leonard, teaching him skills that he says he cannot learn behind a desk.
"I am in a leadership position at such a young age, and I am sought after by a lot of kids," Leonard said. "They look up to me and what I do, and those are big shoes to fill for some people. So I feel that skill in itself is good, because it has molded me into a leader and somebody that the youth in the world can look up to."
Although the club adds more than 40 positions for the summer, they also hire the rest of the year as needed. As the Boys & Girls Clubs is a non-profit, Lewis says these jobs $8 an hour and can go up from there.
