Westminster, MD, Thursday, April 29, 2021 – The Carroll County Business/Employment Resource Center (BERC) is seeking business partners to work with youth during a summer paid work experience program. The program, planning to employ 25 youths, will begin July 8th and run for six weeks.  

BERC’s Summer Youth Employment Program serves Carroll County youth who have never worked or who have one or more barriers to employment. Most of the summer program participants are high school age - 16 to 18 years old. BERC offers career guidance and opportunities for youth to gain meaningful work experience onsite with Carroll businesses while getting paid through the county – eliminating the financial risk for the business partners. Participants will earn $11.75 an hour.

“The summer program provides a great opportunity for the business mentor to introduce a young person to a possible career and help them to gain self-worth.  In addition, it provides much-needed temporary labor for the business”, said BERC Manager Heather Powell. Local business mentors help the youth to gain the experience they need to be successful in the workforce. This year’s program will be a hybrid model focusing on job skills learned on-site and virtual motivation to learn about the soft skills needed to be successful at work.

BERC is currently recruiting both youth participants and business partners. Businesses and youth who are interested in participating in this program should contact Youth Program Coordinator Megan Blizzard at 410-386-2826 or mblizzard@carrollcountymd.gov. Employment Services Supervisor Tammy Haines may also be contacted at 410-386-2831 or tshaines@carrollcountymd.gov for more information.