Youth Initiative at H Street Community Development Corporation

Youth Initiative

The H Street CDC offers an annual Summer Youth Initiative for teens
in the District of Columbia. Our Summer Youth Initiative employs 10 or more
high school students in a program designed to provide education and enrichment
as well as work experience and compensation. We select students from disadvantaged neighborhoods who have maintained at least a “B” average during the current school year.

Each year, we develop the program around a specific theme. Our 2003 theme is “Non-Profits – Telling Their Story”. Students will interview leaders of small non-profit community and civic organizations and develop their interviewing, public speaking, and writing skills as they create several newsletters about the work of community organizations. Other activities include interactive seminars on financial investments and wealth building, training in Microsoft software, and tours of local newspaper offices and universities. And, during once-a-week recreation periods, the students learn the game of golf, a skill with lifelong value in career networking.

This is the 14th year we have offered we have offered the Summer Youth Initiative, with the generous support of corporate and organization sponsors. In the 2002 program, participants studied the workings of the D.C. Government and produced a 38-page report titled D.C. Government: Knowing the System”. As one participant said at the end:

"I’m glad I could get a job that actually taught me something!"

2002 Summer Youth Initiative Sponsors:

D.C. Councilmember Harold Brazil
Allstate Insurance
Amalgamated Bank of New York
Bank of America
Berens Asset Management Company
Berens Asset Management-Parcel 18 LP
Branch Banking and Trust Company
Citigroup Foundation
First Union Corporation
Branch Banking & Trust Company
Citigroup Foundation
First Union Corporation
Local Initiative Support Corporation-DC
Rappaport Companies
Sequoia Bank
SunTrust Bank
Ward Bucher Architects
Woodridge Civic Fund