MAPLE GROVE, MINN. — August 17, 2017—TopLine Federal Credit Union, a Twin Citiesbased member-owned financial cooperative, hosted a summer youth intern through BrookLynk, a youth employment program responding to community needs, modeled after Step-Up Minneapolis, a nationally recognized youth work-readiness training program. 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 10 hours of 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 in the first two years successfully trained nearly 300 young people and coordinated nearly 100 paid summer internships. For the summer of 2017, BrookLynk doubled its efforts and matched over 100 interns with employment positions. “BrookLynk placed nearly a 100 students with paid internships across our Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park communities,” said Luis Salado-Herrera, Youth Employment 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 held at North Hennepin Community College with the program’s other interns, parents and community business partners. TopLine’s intern assisted in multiple departments, including marketing, human resources, branch operations, 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 helping to provide insight on how to best assist young adults in learning how to manage their personal finances; what products and services they desire, and how they like to engage when using a financial institution.

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 are so proud of our BrookLynk summer intern’s eagerness to learn about various careers and to watch her professionally grow over the last eight weeks,” said Vicki Roscoe Erickson, Vice President, Marketing & Communications, TopLine Federal Credit Union. “TopLine is delighted to partner with our community, and especially the BrookLynk program, to help 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 $400 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/youthfinancial-literacy.