A 25-year-old Orange County nonprofit is launching a “one-of-a-kind” celebrity event this week to raise funds to provide job training and placement to young adults.
According to Executive Director Shawna Smith, the renowned OC nonprofit Hope Builders will stage a series of celebrity virtual events entitled “10 Days of Building a Pathway to Prosperity” that began August 28 and will be available online through September.
She said the celebrities taking part this year include Glenn Stearns (Host of Discovery Channel’s “Undercover Millionaire”), Joe Kiani (Founder, Chairman & CEO, Massimo), and Dominique Dawes (Olympic Gold Medal Gymnast).
Legendary New York Yankee Darryl Strawberry will also participate this year, the nonprofit has announced.
Smith said interested participants throughout Orange County are invited to participate in the online events featuring these business leaders and sports stars. “This is a new live speaking series (TED Talk-style), where virtual attendees will be inspired by the celebrity speakers sharing their personal success stories.
For over 26 years, Hope Builders has empowered Southern California’s young adults with mentorship, life skills, and job training that meets the needs of employers,” said Smith.
Founded in 1995 in response to increasing gang violence, high youth unemployment, low high school graduation rates, and rising teen pregnancy, Hope Builders enrolls more than 200 young adults each year who are caught in this cycle of poverty to help them achieve and maintain self-sufficiency, according to Hope Builders.
Built on the concept of a sustainable nonprofit “social enterprise” model, the organization works with different employers, essentially acting as a staffing service to employ graduates from their career-building trainee programs. Hope Builders helps young adults build a pathway to prosperity by bridging the gap between them and employers needing skilled workers. To date, over 6,000 young adults have found their path and begun careers.
Courtesy photo
“Hope Builders is a workforce development agency here in Southern California that works with young adults who are out of school and that work, largely because they have barriers they faced; might be [they] have been involved in foster care, substance abuse issues, maybe previously incarcerated,” said Smith.
“We really work to help them develop job skills in healthcare, construction and other industries so that they can move into a career and transform their lives,” she added.
“Hope Builders opened a door for me. I have a chance to grow and actually be somebody,” says David G., an electrical apprentice hired in 2019 by Sunwest Electric.
“I learned so many skills at Hope Builders. They helped me realize everything is possible,” said Maricela C. who is now a behavior technician at Mitchell Child Development Center.
Regarding this year’s campaign, Smith said this is a new concept inspired, in part, by the pandemic.
“This is actually the first time that we’ve done an event like this,” said Smith, “so this year we are doing a 10-day event that involves four celebrity speakers: Glenn Stearns who’s sort of a financial wizard, Joe Kiani a medical inventor and quite accomplished businessman himself, Darryl Strawberry and Dominic Dawes, who are both professional athletes that are quite accomplished, have stories of overcoming obstacles to achieve what they have in their lives,” the Hope Builders Executive Director said.
“We are pairing those speakers with one of our young people who have come to Hope Builders to use our programs and services to also overcome their obstacles and unlock their greatness.”
Because of the pandemic, the interaction with the celebrities will all be virtual. To participate, visit https://tsjhopebuilders.
