Sometime last year, student HELP participants Kelsey Polk and Nicki Villarreal celebrate after a welding and scaffolding class at Craft Training Center of the Coastal Bend, one of HELP’s biggest partners for on-site career experience. HELP also brings in students from the Nueces County Juvenile Justice Center, as it did in March 2018. Courtesy photo
A young girl who says she wants to be a nurse just might change her mind once she sees how much blood is involved. Another student might become excited about working at a refinery when he discovers it involves strapping on a harness and climbing up the sides of tall structures — or that welding is so much fun!
But they have to experience it themselves. That’s what HELP is for.
HELP is the Hammons Education Leadership Program and the brainchild of Ridge Hammons, Ph.D., of Corpus Christi. A retired high school principal, Hammons has 34 years’ experience in the Coastal Bend watching kids struggle with life-changing career decisions with little experience or knowledge about their options. Eight years ago, he came up with a solution.
“Our motto is ‘How can you find the job of your dreams if you don’t know it exists?’” Hammond said. “HELP takes kids out to look at jobs and see which one excites them and makes them want to know more. We take them where the action is.”
HELP works with the State Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services at the Texas Workforce Commission, Nueces County and the city of Corpus Christi among other entities. It’s On Site Career Mentoring program has won several statewide awards.
It doesn’t cost participants a single penny, which is why HELP needs help. The program operates on donations. Most of this year’s money will come from an event Oct. 19 at Brewster Street Ice House. The event’s theme this year is the cult classic film “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and will include a variety show of acts by local leaders.
“There will be music, excitement, great food and several of the folks we have worked with to tell us what HELP has done for them,” Hammons said. “There will be a huge silent auction including guns, jewelry, dinner and theater passes and numerous other materials like a generator, YETI cooler and handcrafted barbecue pits.”
HELP will also be part of the Day of Giving on Nov. 15 for the first time. These are the only two fundraisers the group holds each year.
HOW HELP HELPS
The experience begins in front of a touchscreen computer, where students who are members of The Career Club in their schools take a look at what Hammons calls the “Window on the World.” The computers are installed in about a dozen schools in Corpus Christi.
“We bring them everything but the smell,” he said of the videos that students view to decide which field trip to choose. Then comes the fun.
“They are not volunteering to go on any old field trip,” Hammon said. “They are going on a trip to find out if welding is something they want to do.”
In its eight years in action, HELP has taken 3,000 kids on 250 field trips to 100 different places. Trips have gone to Spohn Hospital, H-E-B, local refineries and other businesses where students can experience jobs firsthand. The program doesn’t stop there.
“Once a young person finds a job they are interested in, we work to find them a mentor,” Hammons said. “In a survey we conducted last year, 94 percent of the students we interacted with were either still in school or had a job. Until every student has a career goal, this program will be needed and necessary, especially as schools are being forced to cut many of the vocation programs due to budget constraints.”
To find out more about HELP, visit helphelp.us, which includes Windows on the World videos, a list of corporate sponsors, scenes from past variety show fundraisers and an opportunity to donate.
