The Cordova Works Program, in its third year of operation, gives work experience to teenagers from the city for eight weeks during the summer.
The program, which is about at its halfway point for the summer, hires Cordova High School students. This year, the works program has grown to 25 employees after having 23 last year and six in its first year. All the teenagers had to submit an application and go through an interview process.
“This program is one of the most important program we have,” Mayor Jeremy Pate said. “We’re investing in these kids, and they’re going to invest in this community when they become adults.”
A grant from the Walker Area Community Foundation enabled the town to expand the program in 2022, and it allows participants to be paid $10 per hour.
Renee Sides, Cordova’s director of economic development, said 15 of the employees work in the public works department.
“They receive on the job training and develop work skills that will benefit them in any career they choose,” she said.
The other 10 employees work in the Cordova Children’s Summer Program. That program is an 8-week summer camp for children in first through seventh grade. The summer childrens program is two and a half hours of academics in the morning with the afternoon used for hands on learning, such as STEM; agriculture; American, state and local history; animals and bugs; bicycle, public and water safety; outdoor skills, soft skills and culinary arts.
“The employees assigned to the children’s program, most of which want to be teachers, work with the children five days per week,” Sides said.
