TopLine Federal Credit Union Hosts 3rd BrookLynk Summer Youth Intern

MAPLE GROVE, MINN. — TopLine Federal Credit Union, a Twin Citiesbased member-owned financial cooperative, hosted our 3rd summer youth intern through BrookLynk, a youth employment program responding to community needs, a youth work-readiness training program. BrookLynk bridges the gaps between the needs of our local employers and the opportunities that our young people need to develop their pathway to college and career. BrookLynk connects youth ages 14-21 that live or attend school in Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, who face barriers to employment, with local business partners for a 6-8 week internship.

All youth receive work readiness training and the program offers youth ages 16 and older the opportunity to learn essential job skills, gain valuable work experience, develop a professional social network to help develop pathways to college and career and prepare for tomorrow’s skilled workforce. BrookLynk launched the program in 2015, and has successfully increased participation in the program each year. In 2018 nearly 300 young people were trained with essential job skills and 105 young people were matched to paid summer internships.

“2018 was a big year for us, we had nearly 200 young people attended our youth job fair, placed over a 100 students with paid internships and introduced a job board and an alumni network to support our over 200 former interns,” said Luis Salado-Herrera, Program Coordinator for BrookLynk. “We are extremely fortunate to have so many supportive community business partners willing to help our youth explore various career fields, and are thankful for TopLine as our financial services business partner.”

TopLine hosted its BrookLynk intern, who graduated this past year from Park Center Senior High School, from mid-June through August, culminating in an achievement celebration at the at the Earle Brown Heritage Center with the program’s other interns, families, employers, community partners and local government leaders. TopLine’s intern assisted in multiple departments, including marketing, human resources, branch operations, lending, plus had the opportunity to job shadow across various other departments to learn about education and career paths. The intern also had the chance to work on a capstone project, which focused on how to better prepare young adults for their financial futures by learning about the basics of personal finance and how to best select a financial institution partner. Each week of the TopLine internship focused on honing professional skills —including professional attitude, time management, team work ethics, problem solving, verbal communication and a skill of the intern’s choice. TopLine also included the opportunity for the intern to participate in a community volunteer give-back event – to provide a glimpse of the importance of volunteering and supporting our communities.

“We were once again thrilled to host another BrookLynk summer intern and observe his personal and professional growth over the internship,” said Vicki Roscoe Erickson, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Communications, TopLine Federal Credit Union. “TopLine is committed to giving back to our community partners, and especially the BrookLynk program, to help inspire and prepare young adults for their next journey with post-secondary education and career exploration, along with providing basic financial knowledge. We look forward to being involved again next year.”

BrookLynk and its business partners are committed to building pathways to college and careers. Their mission is to coordinate partnerships that prepare employers to engage the next generation of workers and to connect young people in the Brooklyns facing barriers to employment with the skills, experience, and professional social networks needed to develop their pathway to college and career.

For more information, visit https://www.brooklynk.works or https://www.facebook.com/BrookLynkWorks.

TopLine Federal Credit Union, a Twin Cities-based credit union, is Minnesota’s 13th largest, with assets of more than $450 million. Established in 1935, the not-for-profit cooperative offers a complete line of financial services, as well as auto and home insurance, from its five branch locations — in Bloomington, Brooklyn Park, Maple Grove, Plymouth and in St. Paul’s Como Park — as well as by phone, mobile app and online at www.TopLinecu.com. Membership is available to anyone who lives, works, worships, attends school or volunteers in Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott or Washington Counties and their immediate family members. Visit us on our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TopLineFederalCreditUnion.

To learn more about TopLine’s Youth Financial Literacy sessions, visit https://www.toplinecu.com/financial-education/youth-financialliteracy.