By Sean Copeland

BLOOMINGTON – A local organization is introducing a Community Youth Employment program to McLean County in order to help bridge opportunity gaps for low income and at risk youth.

The program lays out objectives for youths like building skill sets and gaining work experience, while simultaneously being paired with job coaches who construct career plans with individualized support.

Project Oz director Jay Shannon, a firm advocate of building young people up through their talents and opportunities says for these young people, it’s all about putting in the work.

“I think a lot of our youth need to develop a certain level of soft skills as far as starting the workforce that they may not have received yet,” said Shannon. “That’s the area that we believe if we really give them some support and we really bridge that gap between the employer and the employee and what their needs are, then we might be pretty effective in Bloomington-Normal.”

According to Shannon, Bloomington’s youth unemployment is double the national average. By 2018, the state-funded program hopes to employ 30-35 youth to start, growing exponentially in later years.

Sean Copeland can be reached at [email protected].