By WMBD TV
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (WMBD) — The city of Bloomington is teaching students aged 13 to 18 about working within the city during their Youth Enrichment Program.
The program is four days long and focuses on a different part of the city every day. Monday focused on public safety with the police department and the fire department.
The program coordinator hopes it will open the students’ eyes to job opportunities within their own city.
“What we hope is that they are educated on what some of the city careers are, right?” said Gregory Wilson, community relations manager for the city. “There are so many things that our city does from the water department, from the police department and our fire department.”
“We want to educate our children. We want to educate these young students because, as they grow, they may have an interest in a city career.”
Tuesday will focus on the city government. Students will talk to Mayor Dan Brady and the city managers. Wednesday will be all about parks and recreation, over at Miller Park Zoo.
They will end the program at Grosinger Motors Arena, where they will ice skate at the connected facility and receive their completion certificate.
“At the conclusion of the program, students receive a $100 gift card and a certificate of completion showing that they have officially completed this tour of city government jobs,” Wilson said.
Wilson hopes the program will continue to grow every year they do it and even expand to college-aged students as well.
“I see this not only growing with our students, because these are 13 to 18-year-olds that are here today. But I also can kind of see it growing with college individuals who are in college, because they are going to be entering the workforce,” he said.
WMBD TV first reported this story. You can read the original story online at CIProud.com.
