The City of San Diego approved $200,000 in funding for CONNECT2Careers (C2C), a youth summer employment initiative administered by the San Diego Workforce Partnership (SDWP). The funding was included in Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s “One San Diego” budget.
“As Mayor, one of my top priorities is job creation, but we must also make sure that we fill those jobs with good San Diego talent,” Faulconer says. “CONNECT2Careers is a fantastic program that helps prepare San Diego’s youth for the future jobs that we are working to create. That’s why I was pleased to include $200,000 for the program in my ‘One San Diego’ budget proposal.”
Peter Callstrom, President and CEO of SDWP, says the objective of C2C is to place young adults, ages 16–21, in quality summer jobs with employers from all sectors. “C2C provides young adults with invaluable opportunities to explore career options, develop important work-readiness skills and bring home a paycheck,” he says. “The fact that our applications doubled from last year tells us that San Diego’s youth want to get to work.”
The C2C program staff connects the applicants with local employers, who conduct interviews and hire the candidates directly. Callstrom adds that 66 companies are currently participating in hiring C2C youth. “We’d like to double that number,” he says.
If you are an employer who would like to hire a young adult for a summer work experience, please call 619-228-2945 or visit https://workforce.org/connect2careers-partners/employers.