FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 31, 2023
Contact: Alejandra Mahoney
EconAlliance Workforce/Education Director
Alejandra@EconAlliance.org

Santa Barbara Foundation Invests $50,000 for Young Adult Internship Program

For EconAlliance Workforce Development/Education Director Alejandra Mahoney, too many young people leave our area to pursue careers. Because these young people do not understand the many industries and opportunities open to them here, the area loses talented potential workers, making it more difficult for local industries and communities to thrive.

In 2022, Mahoney shared her concerns with Mechanics Bank, and the bank provided EconAlliance seed funding for an effort to address the issue. Mahoney began a program which recruits, matches, mentors, and monitors 18-24-year-old young adults, successfully finding industry internship placements relevant to their degrees, majors, or interests. The first three EconAlliance interns placed were hired by their worksites.

Learning of this successful start-up program, the Santa Barbara Foundation made a $50,000 investment in the EconAlliance North County Internship Program. EconAlliance agreed to recruit, match, and mentor fifty (50) under-represented, low-income interns and industry worksites in Northern Santa Barbara County and Mid-County in one year.

Mahoney will not only broker relevant work experience, but also help the young adults navigate the industry internship protocols. and challenges, leveraging this experience where possible into family wage jobs.

The foundation of the EconAlliance North County Internship Program is a partnership with the Santa Barbara County Workforce Development Board (WDB) and Goodwill Industries (WDB internship contractor) which pays the interns, helping them to gain workplace experience. This makes the internships free to employers, a great incentive to hiring the often-inexperienced workers.

The Santa Barbara Foundation introduced Mahoney and EconAlliance to another internship funder, the UCSB California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) Propel Startup Fellowship, which provides paid STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) internships. EconAlliance uses these paid internship programs to recruit both the interns and the worksites relevant to their college or university degrees, or majors, or to their career interests, helping the County to reach its internship goals. As Mahoney states, “A meaningful internship can change a student’s educational trajectory”.

Numerous EconAlliance program interns are already in industry placements or in the placement process in a variety of industries – agriculture, robotics, manufacturing, public service, nonprofit, automotive, and healthcare.

Companies or organizations interested in having an intern should contact EconAlliance Workforce and Education Director Alejandra Mahoney,
alejandra@EconAlliance.org or 805-878-1456.