Listening in at the CareerBound Launch
Thought leaders from across the city, state, and even country came together to formally launch CareerBound, an ambitious occupational skills and career initiative, during a festive, thought-provoking, and emotionally moving event on May 15.
CareerBound is a joint initiative of Baltimore’s Promise, Baltimore City Public Schools, and the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development — as well as dozens of partner organizations and agencies, educational institutions, employers, and resource providers — and will build on and expand the work of the Grads2Careers training program.
Keynote speakers and panelists spoke of the critical need for new pathways to family-sustaining careers, of the need for greater engagement from employers, even when it’s hard, and of the value to individuals, companies, and communities of providing more opportunities to Baltimore’s young talent.
Here are a few of our favorite quotes from event participants.
“Some advice I would like to give young people today here is: CareerBound is very simple. Look around the room; all these people, they care about you. They want you to grow. They're not here just to check a box. They’re here to give people opportunities to really grow and to become young adults and to get into the work field.”
– Travis Robertson, Grads2Careers alumnus
“This is real for our young people. Each and every one of them is facing, frankly, a world with lots of questions, but those questions feel much more answerable when they know they have options…Today with CareerBound, what we are saying is that young people in Baltimore City, we believe in you, we believe in your promise.”
– Dr. Sonja Santelises, CEO, Baltimore City Public Schools
“To the employers,…Go back and think about how you get CareerBound people and how you work with the program.…And if you take advantage of [these programs], not only will you be benefiting young people, you'll be benefiting your company too, because you have smart, capable, talented people who want to join your companies.”
– Carim Khouzami, President and CEO, Baltimore Gas & Electric Co.
“We have to be really intentional about creating access and opportunity. We have to be comfortable with saying some of the narratives and some of the ways we might have worked in the past aren’t producing the same outcomes. So we have to be comfortable with doing things differently. We have to create more opportunities for apprenticeships because that’s what allows a broader, more equitable group of talent to have access.”
– MacKenzie Garvin, Director, Mayor’s Office of Employment Development
Learn more about CareerBound and get involved by filling out the Collaboration form!
