Hometown Jobs: Lynchburg Beacon of Hope Career Accelerator Program

LYNCHBURG, Va. (WDBJ) - A private non-profit in one of our hometowns has been helping students find the right careers for them for more than a decade.

Lynchburg Beacon of Hope is a non-profit serving the Lynchburg community and beyond for more than a decade.

“Our vision, which started then and continues now, is to help more young people have more opportunities when they graduate high school. Whether that’s college, whether that’s technical certification, whether that’s the military or directly into the workforce, we are not prescriptive. We are just there to help Google map their next steps and make sure they stay on their map,” said Laura Hamilton, Executive Director of Lynchburg Beacon of Hope.

They help students through the career acceleration program.

“Our high school students needed more support, being workforce-ready and we know that to be true. From our employers, we know it from our students themselves, we know it from our chamber of commerce, so that’s one target group that we’re working on in career accelerator,” said Hamilton.

The organization also encourages those they like to call “pausers”, or those who have taken some time off to get back on track.

“With this program, we have the capacity to now re-engage those students, and make sure that we are able to get them into positions of upward mobility, and that looks different for every single student,” said Leidra McQueen, Deputy Director of Lynchburg Beacon of Hope.

People like Jaylin Davis.

“My college journey was a little bit rough. I thought I would do the typical graduate high school and then go off to school. I did do that, but when I went to campus, I kind of got scared. So I took a gap year myself,” said Jaylin Davis, Centra Administrative Assistant.

After Lynchburg Beacon of Hope reached out to her, she was ready to jump back into furthering her education.

“So I went back to CVCC, for free, with the stay-close-go-for program and that’s where it really started. I thought, hey, if I take this gap year, am I really gonna go back, but Beacon of Hope gave me the opportunity to really see what I didn’t see myself at first,” said Davis.

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One of the main initiatives of the program is internships. They partner with local businesses to give students that workforce experience.

“The program had really helped to prepare them for putting together a resume or how to conduct themselves professionally in a work environment. For us, it really just was being the partner of saying, these are the different types of opportunities that you could have,” said Amy Carrier, President and CEO of Centra Health.

It was through her internship that Davis was able to get a job working at Centra Health.

“Normally, when you hear healthcare, you think of doctor and nurse, but there’s so many behind the scenes, people who, who do the work for those doctors and nurses to really excel at their own jobs. So, I just want to have more insight in that and knowing that I’m helping somebody else in their life,” said Davis.

“It’s really opened up this idea about talking about workforce pipelining and having our students think earlier and more often about what’s available and opening their minds to possibilities that maybe they didn’t know existed,” said Hamilton.

Davis is thankful for Lynchburg Beacon of Hope and how they have impacted her life in a positive way.

“That support and believing in yourself and them giving you the opportunities to believe in yourself to really bring everything together,” said Davis.

Lynchburg Beacon of Hope is having an event coming up in March.

HOPEx is a live speaking event filled with storytelling and inspiration. It’s happening on March 22nd at the Historic Academy Theatre. For tickets, click here.