Charleston, SC – January 28, 2015:  In his final State of the City speech last night, Mayor Joesph P. Riley, Jr. mentioned several key local programs serving students, and challenged the business community to provide valuable, life shaping employment opportunities to students this summer.

“We are fortunate to be working with our Tri-County Cradle to Career Collaborative chaired by our wonderful community leader, Anita Zucker. This collaborative helps us focus on initiatives that really pay off in benefiting our children like Communities in Schools, Reading Partners, the Charleston Promise Neighborhood and many others. And tonight, I will challenge us as a community to engage one more initiative and, that is, increasing summer youth employment for our students.

For a teenager, a summer job not only often provides much needed income for college and their families, but lifetime beneficial experiences are gained in the workplace and the students make a great contribution to the organization for which they are working.  I am announcing a regional summer youth employment challenge. Our goal is to have 1,000 high school students in summer jobs. I am working in partnership with the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, our regional school districts and we will be reaching out to businesses and local governments. Let’s make the summer of 2015 an especially rewarding one for our youth.”

Read the entire speech here: http://www.charleston-sc.gov/index.aspx?nid=1260

Businesses interested in providing summer employment opportunities can take action here: https://charlestonempowered.com/business-partners/