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

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

HELP has come to the Nueces County Juvenile Justice Center. The Hammons Education Leadership Programs Inc. recently took students from JJC to Commercial Metals Co. and the Craft Training Center for a firsthand look at the world of work.
The Nueces Co. JJC works with troubled teens to find positive resolutions to their problems and deter risky behavior. HELP assists with that mission by exposing students to potential career choices by actually having them do the work required on a job site.
“Our motto is ‘How can you find the job of your dreams if you don’t know it exists?’” said Ridge Hammons, founder of the nonprofit program. “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.”
The action at Commercial Metals included experience in metal recycling, fabrication, and construction. The Craft Training Center offered students a chance to work at pipefitting, welding, scaffolding, and crane operating.
“As industry pours into the Coastal Bend, skilled workers will continue to be in ever-increasing demand,” Hammons said. “We want those workers to be local. These HELP students have an opportunity to be a part of this booming trend and build a real future in South Texas.”
HELP’s Second Chance Program has taken more than 3,500 students on over 250 trips to more than 100 different job sites since it began 10 years ago. More than 200 job placements occurred as a direct result.
“Research shows this type of program gives kids the desire to stay in school, off drugs, and out of gangs,” Hammons said. “It may lead them to receive the training they need to accomplish their dreams.”
For more information on HELP, contact (361) 443-5895 or ridge@helphelp.us. Visit findthejobofyourdreams.com.