Mobile Works Brings in International Speaker/Consultant Lester Brown to Kick Off $447,700 MCPSS Summer Jobs for Youth Program
Friday, Jun 11th, 2004

Lester Brown will speak to youth at 9:00 a.m. on 6/14/04
and their parents 6:00 p.m. on 6/14/04
(both events at Leflore High School Theater)


MOBILE, Alabama – June 11, 2004 – Mobile Works Inc. is bringing in international speaker and consultant Lester Brown to speak to kick off the Summer Jobs for Youth 2004 program on Monday June 14, 2004. Mobile Works has invested $437,741 in the 12-month youth program being delivered by the Mobile County Public School System. Lester Brown will deliver his message to approximately 275 Mobile County Public School System students on Monday June 14, 2004 at 9:00 am at the Leflore High School Theater in Mobile, in addition to speaking to their parents that evening at 6:00 pm at the same location.

The Summer Jobs for Youth 2004 program will serve 275 low-income in-school at-risk youth aged 14-18, including graduating seniors, to improve their career and leadership potential to assist students in getting a job or furthering their education. The youth will attend a week-long Leadership Academy, then report to worksites and engage in 30 hours of work a week for six weeks. Youth will be able to explore careers; receive life skills and occupational skills development; and enjoy paid and unpaid work-based learning opportunities.

Lester Brown is a uniquely gifted, internationally acclaimed speaker and teacher who grew up in a climate of poverty, crime and drugs in the ghetto of Detroit, Michigan. While in grade school, he was thought to have learning disabilities and was expelled. An inevitable path of delinquency and crime eventually escalated to a 240-year life prison sentence. According to Brown, "The best way to predict the future is to create it."

Lester Brown shaped his own life on this philosophy. While in prison, Brown discovered that he had, within himself, the potential to change his life. Armed with this powerful revelation on how to bring about the changes he desired, he set forth on a path to redemption. Brown first learned to read at the age of 30 while in prison, rehabilitated himself and was eventually freed from serving his life sentence. He studied for and received his GED. Next, he studied psychology at the University of Wisconsin, earning a place on the dean's list all four years.

Lester Brown then decided to speak to youth to help them avoid the path that led him to a life term in prison, developing one of the nation's most outstanding programs for working with youth and at-risk populations. Drawing on his personal experiences and street credibility, he delivers a powerful message that invariably inspires and motivates at-risk and troubled youth that face the same issues he once did. Brown has provided training programs and seminars for schools, Fortune 500 corporations and governments throughout the US and abroad.

"We are proud to bring in Lester Brown to speak to Mobile youth and their parents about the importance of education, personal responsibility and living up to one�s potential despite the odds. We believe that Lester Brown can reach these students because his unique background gives him the credibility to back up his powerful message," said Sydney G. Raine, President of Mobile Works.

"Mobile Works has been a prodigious supporter of the youth programs in the Mobile community and in helping us reach out and assist those youth who need our services most," said Dorinda Franklin, the School to Work Supervisor for the Mobile County Public School System.

Mobile Works Inc., a local partnership of business, education, labor and community leaders, provides businesses with training, leadership, labor market information and employment programs designed to stimulate local business by meeting the needs of Mobile area businesses while increasing the available labor pool of skilled jobseekers in the Mobile area. Since its inception in 2000, the group has donated more than $5.9 million to fund job and educational programs for Mobile area youth out of the over $19 million given overall to support Mobile area job and educational programs.

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Contact:
Gia Dinges, Director of Marketing
251-432-0909 - phone
[email protected] email
www.mobile-works.org website


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