Brooklyn’s queer community center is accepting applications for a paid-internship program this spring.
The Brooklyn Community Pride Center’s internship training and placement program is tailor-made to help aspiring young LGBTQ professionals overcome unique challenges they face in kick-starting careers, an executive at the Bedford-Stuyvesant–based Center said.
Nearly a dozen formerly homeless, LGBTQ youths — who were all forced to live on the street because of their sexual orientation or gender identity — received opportunities through the so-called Pride Path program since it launched last year with funds from a city-based trust, according to the center official.
“There are many barriers to entering the workforce for queer young adults, including poverty and homeless,” said Floyd Rumohr, the Pride Center’s chief executive officer. “When your basic needs aren’t being fulfilled, it’s very difficult to compete for and sustain a job.”
Center leaders are currently looking to recruit 20 eager young people 18 to 24 years old for the program’s upcoming semester, which kicks off with two weeks of job-training classes on February 18. Following their training, participants will begin eight-week internships at one of 15 participating companies, according to the Center’s programs director Jako Borren.
The budding professionals will earn $15-per hour during the training program and internships, which offer experience in fields including retail, media, arts and entertainment, health, and real estate. College degrees are not required to apply, Rumohr had said in a previous interview.
The program also covers participants’ commuting expenses and, after it concludes, Center leaders will help the future leaders of tomorrow land real jobs, Borren said.
Would-be interns can apply for the Pride Path program by visiting the Brooklyn Community Pride Center’s websitelgbtbrooklyn.org/pride-path.
This story originally appeared in The Brooklyn Paper, a sister Schneps Media publication to Gay City News.
