Fostering Healthcare Careers
For the second time in her life, Central Floridian Marie Melendez found herself homeless. The mother was overcoming a divorce and thousands of dollars in debt, staring at rock bottom when she and her kids found refuge at Orlando Union Rescue Mission. From there, she connected with Jobs Partnership’s LifeWorks training. Now, she’s seven years into her career as a Health Unit Coordinator at AdventHealth.
AdventHealth University and Jobs Partnership are working together to build a pipeline of employees like Marie from underserved Central Florida communities. They are launching a free program in February for job seekers interested in health care careers. While this new training may recruit and reach under-skilled Central Floridians, it also has the potential to address the worker shortage Florida faces with the large baby boomer generation retiring. Marie Melendez joins Engage along with Marc Stanakis, President and CEO of Jobs Partnership.
CFPM Education Year-in-Review
We saw several top line education stories in 2024, including book bans, curriculum changes, and debates over funding free meals for students. We continue our year end round up with the beat reporters in Central Florida Public Media’s Newsroom. Today we are speaking with Education Reporter Danielle Prieur.
A Third Place in Central Florida
If you add up the time you spend at home with the time you spend working, that likely accounts for most of your day. There is a theory that you must have another place to go and interact in order to have a healthy society and democracy. American Urban Sociologist Ray Oldenburg called it the third place. The first space is your home. The second is where you work. Oldenburg described the third place as an informal public gathering spot to socialize on neutral ground. The concept is important to Heather LaVine who owns Golden Hour Wine in Baldwin Park and the newly opened Quicksand Bar a' Vin in Mills 50. She explains that Golden Hour Wine was a retail shop first that ended up being a place people wanted to hang out. She wanted to encourage those interactions, but the physical design and buildout wasn’t the most conducive to it. So, she recently opened Quicksand Wine Bar. She describes her new natural wine bar as a bar first with more seating where you can also buy bottles. LaVine joins Engage to discuss the importance of the third place in her business model.
The third place is intended to be a safe spot to socialize. It could be a bookstore, church, or perhaps a park. For some people, their third space might be virtual. For music producer Austin Hull and his wife Miranda Hull, that digital approach is not as effective as an in-person brick and mortar third space. The husband-and-wife travel from their Winter Garden home to Orlando many weekends to spend time at Golden Hour Wine or Quicksand Wine Bar. Miranda and Austin join Engage to discuss the role of the third place in building better communities.
