Success Story:
Tashia Helps Youth Ages 17-24 with Job Training, Educational Opportunities and Leadership Skills through Telamon’s YouthBuild Program

Tashia, South Carolina

As I enter my 10^th year at Telamon, there is one thing I’ve aspired to do and remain consistent in: the “heart work” in my everyday job, and my commitment to be a change agent in the lives of those I encounter.  My passion – why I give of myself as I do to our youth – comes from the heart. My passion for working with youth began with my first job at Telamon as a van driver – and years later, endures in my current job at Project Director for YouthBuild.  A community-based alternative education program, YouthBuild provides job training and educational opportunities for youth ages 17-24. My passion is predicated not on position, but on a sense of purpose.

Telamon’s YouthBuild program is a place where participants are given an opportunity to gain academic remediation, occupational skills training, and leadership development. It’s also a place where participants are encouraged to dream again! It’s a place where participants are taught “growth must be intentional” and most importantly, it’s a place where they have a sense of family.  Our motto is: “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care!” There are days that we serve single mothers, participants from dysfunctional homes, participants struggling with drug addiction, participants that are homeless, participants that have been abandoned, participants that are hungry – yet and still, they show up! In my opinion, this is STRENGTH.

Telamon YouthBuild is a federally funded program, and while the Department of Labor only requires that we follow participants for a year after exit, there are very few participants from 2009-present that I am unable to contact. I stay in touch with because “once you join Telamon YouthBuild, you’re family forever”. It’s like watching your own children grow before your eyes.

Among the Telamon YouthBuild family: participants enlisted in the military, a welder, an Aviation Maintenance Technician, a Production Operator Specialist, customer service representatives, a Behavioral Specialist, college students, and those that have found solace in just having meaningful employment. This is the core of what Telamon Corporation represents as we “build better lives one step at a time”. Some see the youth served by YouthBuild as “at-risk”,  but I see them as so much more – as “opportunity youth in at-risk situations!” Growth doesn’t happen in an instant, but with persistent and committed support, growth is inevitable. I am a firm believer that everything we need to be amazing in the work we’re called to do is already on the inside! My job is simply to help youth to identify what it is and inspire them to walk therein. My work with Telamon’s YouthBuild program is the reason “I serve from the heart”.

Telamon-TRC’s Workforce & Career Services encompasses a broad array of customized work readiness and job skill training programs, focusing on helping farmworkers, veterans, and youth who seek to build skills and career paths. Work readiness and job skill development are often supplemented by language services (ESL), educational support (GED) and includes one-on-one counseling, group workshops and supportive services. 

Since 1965 Telamon-TRC has helped individuals like you access services that lead to better jobs, better lives, and better communities. Find a Workforce & Career Services program near you today.