Opportunity Knocks for New York City youths
“Equal Opportunity is the Law”- reads a sign (with an accompanying one in Spanish) in the lobby of the Opportunity for a Better Tomorrow (OBT) building. Young men and women crowd near the front desk, waiting for classes to begin. They are dressed in some very good-looking suits, and laugh with each other as they turn off their cell phones. Their school day, and work day, is just beginning.
OBT is a program developed to train youths ages 17-21 with job and life skills. OBT’s two locations in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park and Bushwick neighborhoods provide young adults not only with a productive venue in which to succeed in the work-force, but also hope for a better future, a future of which they most certainly can be proud.
Shawn Fonville, now an OBT employee, is a graduate of the almost 17 week program. Mr. Fonville, 21, admits that not having found this outlet would have left him on the streets, without a higher education, and without motivation to use his intellectual assets to his advantage. Mr. Fonville is a Bushwick native, and entered the program already having his high school degree. Many students who first start out with OBT do not have their high school degrees, and therefore OBT provides them with pre-GED classes, in addition to their other classes.
OBT is a full time commitment; it is not only school. Often times, OBT is the students’ first taste of a job. Students do not have to pay for textbooks, but must come prepared and on time to school in the proper attire (signs throughout the hallways very clearly state and show business dress code).
William Ortiz, OBT’s Bushwick Site Administrator, shared how he felt about working for OBT, and about how gratifying it feels to know he is helping young people not only in his community, but throughout the 5 boroughs.
OBT also provides students with internship opportunities (11 weeks of paid work), tapes its students so that they may self review their interview skills and progress, and also follows up with students with post-graduation counseling. Graduation for students entails celebrating their first hire.
OBT opens doors for students who have the potential to succeed, but not the means. OBT guides them, and by providing them with “transferrable skills” (skills which can help them in any work environment) OBT allows students to make the most out of their lives. OBT is a job, a school, and a family.
