Paving the Road to Success

Tipping the Scales

The Tipping the Scale partnership with Baptist provides Baptist and Shands Hospital employees to serve as mentors for teens participating in the Bridge Urban Springfield program. The mission is to support healthy behaviors for high- risk youth through mentoring relationships and prepare them for employment through job skills training and summer jobs.

This program utilizes mentoring relationships in guiding high - risk teens to establish goals that will lead to high school graduation, higher education and/or successful employment. 2010-2011 School Year: 98.9% of the youth who participated in the program have graduated or are still in school. Graduating youth are either in college, the military or are gainfully employed.

Students participate in job Skills training classes, which address public speaking, financial literacy and general professionalism. Tipping the Scale staff also visit teachers to determine academic status and attendance.

Fast Path to Success

Fast Path is a partnership between The Bridge and EverBank, the largest online bank in the Southeast. Fast Path is modeled on the highly successful Tipping the Scale program. Launched in the fall of 2009 with twelve 10th grade students, the program now serves 16 students with EverBank mentors.

The mission of Fast Path is to help Bridge high school students with high potential improve their chances of becoming productive, successful adults through a highly selective and comprehensive program designed to:

Improve students’ financial literacy skills
Provide supplemental academic and life skills mentoring
Provide valuable work experience and other enrichment opportunities
Offer opportunities for college scholarships and future employment

Qualified students receive an 8-week paid summer internship.

JEA Mentoring Program

In October 2008, a year-round mentoring program targeted to Bridge middle schools students started at the Jacksonville Electric Authority with seven 8^th graders. Every other week five of those original students and five additional students travel to the JEA main office in downtown Jacksonville to meet with their mentors. On alternate weeks, the students receive life skills classes and communication skills classes taught by the Bridge Mentoring Coordinator or a volunteer from the JEA staff.

LPS Mentoring Program

In February 2011 another corporation stepped up to partner with The Bridge for a mentoring program. Lender Processing Services on Riverside Avenue has started out with ten mentors and 9^th grade mentees from The Bridge. Students meet with their mentors every other week and on alternate weeks attend classes at LPS in financial literacy and life skills.

Bridgeworks

BridgeWorks is a highly successful job skills and employment program for low-income youth between the ages of 14 – 18.

BridgeWorks participants grow and learn through:

Employment Training
Employment Shadowing
After School Tutoring
College and Career Tours
Internships and Work Experience

All Bridge Urban Springfield (BUS) students receive job skills training. Bridge staff monitor and assist students in their academic progress. Juniors and seniors in the BUS program are monitored with monthly school visits to discuss progress and attendance. Each year during spring break, BridgeWorks students go on two college tours, visiting colleges around the state.

Meet Roxanne:

Sometimes all a young woman needs to grow and blossom is kindness and direction from a caring adult. Roxanne got that from Bridge staff when she came to The Bridge Urban Springfield program. With help, she developed from a withdrawn young teen to the college graduate and career woman that she is today.

Personal struggles including the death of a close family member contributed to Roxanne’s social isolation. Staff recognized her need for guidance and assigned her a mentor. Board Member Mary Burt took Roxanne under her wing.

Roxanne set her sights on a college education, participating in college tours and learned about the costs of a college education. She earned her first job at The Bridge summer camp and later became the Bridge receptionist after school.

She got involved with Bridge Straight Talk, a sexuality health education program funded by The Jaguar Foundation. As a peer educator with other Bridge students, she conducted outreach programs in the community, spreading the word about responsible choices and health. Roxanne also represented The Bridge Straight Talk program at two national Ryan White conferences in Dallas and Washington D.C.

Roxanne was admitted to Bethune Cookman University. With the encouragement and guidance of her mentor, Mary Burt, Roxanne graduated in May 2011, with a degree in criminal justice and currently works in the juvenile justice field.