Employment Opportunities For Overtown Youth

Miami FL

28 April, 2021

11:56 AM

Description

Miami Times Staff Report, the Miami Times Apr 27, 2021 Miami District 5 Commissioner Jeffrey Watson has partnered with the Black Archives History & Research Foundation of South Florida, Inc., one of the larger employers of Overtown residents within the community, to expand its existing job training and employment program to include high school students. The organization, which originally created its employment program to assist adult Overtown residents, expanded the program's scope after Commissioner Watson and Black Archives Executive Director Timothy A. Barber discussed the need to get young people in the neighborhood involved with more opportunities for work experience at the Black Archives Historic Lyric Theater Cultural Arts Complex (BAHLT). "When it's all said and done, Overtown will never be what it used to be--Overtown's going to be greater than it once was," said Commissioner Watson. "And for it to be greater, young people have to participate in understanding and knowing what our history was in this neighborhood. This neighborhood was the foundation of the City of Miami--and if they don't know that, then they can't perpetuate the facts of why they exist the way they do." With existing grant funding provided by the Southeast Overtown Park West Community Redevelopment Agency (SEOPWCRA), Barber consulted with CRA Executive Director Cornelius Shiver on how to restructure the program to include the hiring of student employees from Booker T. Washington Senior High School and surrounding schools in the Overtown neighborhood. Shiver felt that the program is needed in the redevelopment area and stated that, "It's important that we prepare the kids today, for the opportunities that the CRA is creating for tomorrow." The Black Archives Historic Lyric Theater reopened in February 2021 after being shut down for nearly a year due to the pandemic. Once reopened, the resumed activity has helped generate more opportunities to put Overtown residents to work. "Young people have demonstrated that they want to contribute and be involved in something positive in the community," said Mr. Barber, Black Archives Executive Director. "With support from Commissioner Watson and funding from the CRA, we are able to provide an opportunity for these youth to gain work experience in a historic space, while earning some pocket money and keeping their hands and minds from being idle when they aren't in school." "Arts and culture can employ people," said Commissioner Watson. "And the truth is, we need to be employing people all over the place. That's one thing that makes Miami move, its arts and culture." Activity at the Black Archives Historic Lyric Theater is closely aligned with Commissioner Watson's vision for Overtown and the CRA's plans to further cultivate the Historic Overtown Culture & Entertainment District. Since 2013, The Black Archives has provided jobs to hundreds of adult Overtown residents, and this expansion to include youth puts the Black Archives in a position to impact even more lives through cultural programming at the complex. Commissioner Watson believes that this employment initiative at the Black Archives, and the history lessons that will come along with it, are essential for the youth of the Overtown community. The Miami Times is the largest Black-owned newspaper in the south serving Miami's Black community since 1923. The award-winning weekly is frequently recognized as the best Black newspaper in the country by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.