AFJ Celebrates Our 27 Participants Who Completed The 2023 HIRE Up Two Internship Cohorts

Last night, Avenues for Justice (AFJ) hosted a celebration at our Harlem community center for our 27 Participants who completed their paid internship placements. In 2023, our HIRE Up program has focused largely on workforce development. We increased the number of onsite OSHA-30 training classes, added CPR, food protection and food handlers certification classes, and hosted two Workforce1 job fairs. These trainings culminated to our second cohort of interns who completed their 125-hour, 8-week internships in December. 

Spearheaded by Court Advocates Shantel and Julia, the success of the internship program has led several Participants to refer their peers to AFJ for job readiness assistance, in addition to assistance with their legal matters. Among the Participants who completed the second cohort of internship placements in December, eight are high school students.

AFJ invited all off our interns as well as hosting sites to our Harlem center for a celebration catered by KD’s Comfort Foods, Raising Cane’s Chicken and Yummy Tummy's Kitchen. It was great to have our interns and their employers in community with a round table discussion about the overall internship experience. Several of the businesses expressed an interest in continuing their partnership with Avenues for Justice in 2024. One employer even threw their AFJ intern a farewell party stating that it was sad to see them go.

AFJ Interns shared their thoughts about their placements:

“The internship was really good for me. I got to meet a lot of good people at my job, including nice customers. I also felt welcomed there.” ~Channel, St. Marks Yoga Studio

"It wasn't just me helping them, it was the Director helping me. I do music and the Director partnered with me. He had me in the studio writing things. He showed me how to record myself and I really learned a lot." ~AFJ Intern, Audio Pictures

"Our intern had experience recording music and making videos. My job as a supervisor was to provide another side of the experience, including the behind the scenes of music production." Ryan Burvick, Creative Director of Audio Pictures 

“My favorite part of the internship was the trust that I earned from my employer. I was so happy that they wanted to keep my on board after the internship ended.” ~Katherine, Sankofa Haus Event Space

AFJ intern Katherine made such a strong impact at the event space, Sankofa Haus, that they will be hiring her for future events. Katherine shared about how “the one thing I have learned the most is patience, and they have been patient with me. Patience has always been a struggle with me and I love being challenged in this role. I have always wanted to do decorating and event planning and this job feels like something I can grow with. It felt like a door opened for me. These internship opportunities are really amazing, it’s giving us the chance to get to know people and make money while doing something that we like.”

Avenues for Justice is incredibly grateful to all of our funders who helped make our 2023 HIRE Up Internship Program possible. We thank our business partners who provided work experience in various industries for our young people, helping them develop important job skills. And we congratulate all of our Participants who signed up, showed up diligently and worked incredibly hard for eight weeks! We look forward to our next cohort in Spring 2024.  

If you area local business and would like to be a host site for internship placements, please contact Gamal Willis at gwillis@avenuesforjustice.org.

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