Two grants being awarded by a foundation with local connections are aimed at helping to attract and retain young, talented people in the Akron area.
Torchbearers, an organization that supports young professionals, has been awarded a $45,000 grant to create a program to connect summer interns to each other and the community and $20,000 for a program to promote Akron to young professional job candidates.
The grants are being awarded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation over a two-year period. The Miami-based Knight Foundation invests in communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers, including the Beacon Journal. The foundation also supports what it considers transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, media innovation, engaging with communities and fostering the arts.
The first program will be called “Intern Edge” and will debut next summer for about 60 interns with local companies and nonprofits. The program is designed to connect the interns, who are often in Akron from out of town, with community life and encourage connections between interns and community leaders. Interns are to gain exposure to new places to live, play and volunteer while building relationships with peers and community leaders.
Akron companies compete with businesses nationwide for summer interns so by offering the Intern Edge program, it can give a company and Akron an edge, said Kyle Kutuchief, incoming president for Torchbearers, which is for 25- to 39-year-olds. Members who join before they are 39 can stay until 42.
“There currently is no piece of the leadership continuum in Akron that caters to the college student,” said Kutuchief, director of development for the Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron (ABIA). “We have a lot of talent that comes to Akron every summer and if there’s no connection, that’s not good.”
Amanda Leffler, president of Torchbearers, said both the Intern Edge program and the Torchbearers Ambassador program — in which trained Torchbearers’ members will take potential young professional job candidates to dinner to talk about the community — are a result of talking to business leaders about their needs.
Executives said, “I’m having trouble landing talent,” said Leffler, a partner at Brouse McDowell, who has seen it herself as a member of the hiring committee for attorneys for 10 years.
Leffler said the firm has often lost potential candidates to other cities because “I don’t think they realize what all is available to them [in Akron].”
While both programs are still being developed, the Intern Edge program will launch first this spring by getting commitments for “slots” from companies. Kutuchief said the hope is that companies can use enrollment in the special program as a “carrot” to entice potential interns.
The program will include a six-to-eight week curriculum to create a deeper sense of attachment to Akron. The program will include opportunities for interns to interact with alumni of the group called Leadership Akron, which is partnering with Torchbearers for the program. That might include a small lunch of three to four interns with a company chief executive officer or a round-robin lunch with small groups of interns sitting at tables with CEOs and rotating. There could also be a service day where interns are not just told about opportunities, but can participate.
“We want interns to form true connections with each other, which will help tie them to the area,” said Leffler.
There will also be exposure to different parts of the city, said Kutuchief.
“We want to give people that sense of place and get connected in town. Even if someone grew up in Cuyahoga Falls, they maybe have never been to Highland Square or Green or West Akron. If they’re not from the area, it’s that much more valuable,” he said.
Jennifer Thomas, Akron program director for the Knight Foundation, said connecting young professionals to a vibrant place to live in Akron is a goal of the foundation.
The size of Akron and the active civic involvement of so many of Akron’s business and community leaders will be a plus for the young professionals, said Thomas.
“If you’re a young professional and you’re out and about and you get to have a chance to have a conversation with or sit at a table with them or hear about their civic involvement, that’s really motivating,” said Thomas.
The ambassador program will start after the intern program and is designed to dovetail with a company’s own recruitment of a potential young professional candidate. It is aimed at giving the person an opportunity to meet young professionals in Akron to learn more about the city and its attributes.
“We talk about this community. What do you and your significant other or kids want to do and what would you love to find in Akron?” said Kutuchief.
Program gains support
The grant funds will be used to start both programs, with the idea of both being sustained by fees charged to the participating companies.
Leffler and Kutuchief said there are already commitments from some businesses to participate in both programs and Torchbearers will have slots for more.
Dan Colantone, president and CEO of the Greater Akron Chamber, said both programs are aligned with the chamber’s economic development plan.
“Data shows that internship programs have a high return on investment for keeping our best and brightest in our region for future career opportunities,” he said.
In September, when a group of nearly 60 of Akron’s community and business leaders traveled to Omaha, Neb., to learn about that area’s practices, the group heard from the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce’s program that connects summer interns together.
Leffler and Thomas, who were both on the trip, said hearing about the program affirmed the plans they had already begun for Akron’s program.
Leffler said several business leaders came up to her on the trip to say the program should be duplicated in Akron and Leffler told them it was in the works.
Kutuchief said in researching the programs, Torchbearers will be filling a new need in Akron and not duplicating anything currently done.
“These two programs will highlight Akron’s rich community life and encourage talented professionals who are considering Akron as a career destination to make it their home,” said Thomas. “Building on the existing talent pool in Akron will add to the vitality of the city and create more opportunities in the future.”
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/blinfisher and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty.