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Our Challenge
The hospitality industry is projected to experience significant employment growth in the 10-year period ending in 2012, with more than 1.6 million new jobs expected to be in demand. Yet there is a projected shortage of qualified workers to meet these growing needs. Miami Florida is one of the nations leading destination points for visitors boasting more than 13 million visitors each year. The projected shortage of qualified workers and especially young worker from poor high risk underrepresented populations and communities are at an all time high. Miami’s restaurant, hotel and lodging partners consistently state that they have difficulty retaining skilled workers because of the negative image faced by the industry. More discerning is the growing number of African American youth who are absent and mostly unseen in the local Hospitality Industry in southern Florida. Many employers has informed us that they have difficulty finding African American youth who possess basic “soft skills,” which are often a prerequisite for success in any customer service-oriented field. The Hospitality Industry as a whole lacks the- know- how, consistency, and portability in their outreach and training to reach African Americans youth and other underrepresented populations who live in the Greater Miami area.

Between May 2006 and May 2007 more than 15,600 new jobs were created in hospitality in Miami-Dade County (Florida Labor Market Statistic, 2007). After several discussions and meetings with various industry leaders about the workforce shortage they all agreed that there were not enough attention being paid to the more than 200,000 African American and Haitian American youth who live here (2002 Census). We knew that the high drop out rates county wide is (45%). We also found high correlations between youth arrested and school drop out rates.

Unfortunately, Africa Americans have the lowest high school and college completion rates of any racial or ethnic group in Miami Dade . Despite recent advances in educational attainment, reports from the U.S. Census Bureau reveal that serious discrepancies remain when African American educational levels are compared to other groups: