Youth Internship Training

Organization: Beautiful Day is an employment-focused nonprofit with a mission to connect refugees with the Rhode Island community through business initiatives, job training, and public education. We serve newly resettled adults and youth who face challenging employment barriers due to limited English and lack of experience navigating the American job market. To address these challenges, we provide paid, hands-on training in our commercial kitchen, at farmers markets, and through internships with local business partners. We supplement on-the-job training with classroom based workshops to ensure that our participants graduate with a network of support and the critical skills to confidently enter the workforce. We offer four programs that each serve a different demographic: Granola production and packaging for adults with multiple barriers, job readiness training and internship opportunities for youth ages 15-18, market and customer service training for adults with higher skills, and a catering/business entrepreneurship exploration for Afghan Women.

Opportunity: Our Youth Program runs for 9 months, beginning in October, and consists of a paid 2.5 hour/week job readiness class and a paid 8-10 hour/week work internship with a local business. This is a big time commitment, but well worth it. For many youth, this is a life-changing program that helps them gain experience, grow in confidence, increase their social networks, and make new friends. As one youth graduate put it: "You find the time. You put in the energy. You say to yourself, 'It’s for my future. The future won’t find me. I have to find my future.'”