Employment program gives young adults hands-on experience in entertainment industry

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY (WABC) — A new summer program is allowing young adults to get hands-on experience in the arts and entertainment industry in Newark, New Jersey.

Young adults from ages 18-24 participated in training including sound engineering and professional recording, media and TV production, acting and the entertainment business at Galaxy Sound Studios.

“I really want these kids to get things that school can’t teach them in music classes,” said Cashmere King, Owner of Galaxy Sound Studios.

Newark is becoming a major hub for arts and entertainment, with Lionsgate Studios moving there, and the presence of New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark Symphony Hall, and the Prudential Center.

Major motion pictures and TV shows like “Batman: The Dark Knight Rises,” “Joker,” “The Plot Against America,” “The Sopranos,” and its prequel, “The Many Saints of Newark,” have all been filmed there.

“Lionsgate is on its way here, and our students will be ready to apply for jobs and be qualified to work and qualify to start earning living, competitive wages,” Co-founder of Indigo Station Heather Malloy-Davis said.

The Summer Youth Employment Program is made possible by a public-private partnership led by the City of Newark and including the New Jersey Department of Labor and 19 corporate and philanthropic partners.

The City of Newark has invested nearly $3 Million into the program, which has hired 2,100 young adults.

“We also had carpentry, for high school kids. But a lot of the programs that we have it really is geared toward that 18-24 population to let them know you don’t have to go to college and you can still have a successful career,”Iasia Hemingway Director of ‘Newark Youth One Stop Program’ said.

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