Work Skills Training Center for Youth, INC.

08/28/2026

Late Summer Garden Update & Exciting Grant News!

Our garden continues to grow and look amazing! We are seeing a wonderful harvest come in, with several large pumpkins and lots of watermelons currently ripening on the vine....

Our garden continues to grow and look amazing! We are seeing a wonderful harvest come in, with several large pumpkins and lots of watermelons currently ripening on the vine. The tomatoes and squash…

08/18/2026

Look what is growing at the center! We are so incredibly excited to announce that we have harvested our very first vegetables!...

Look what is growing at the center! We are so incredibly excited to announce that we have harvested our very first vegetables! As you can see in the pictures, our garden is thriving. We have beauti…

08/18/2026

Week 2 of Summer Camp

That’s a wrap on our second week of summer camp at the Work Skills Training Center for Youth Incorporated!...

That’s a wrap on our second week of summer camp at the Work Skills Training Center for Youth Incorporated! We had an incredibly busy and fun week. Our students headed out for site visits to learn a…

08/03/2026

Look what is growing at the center! 🌱🍅🥒

We are so incredibly excited to announce that we have harvested our very first vegetables! As you can see in the pictures, our garden is thriving. We have beautiful baby cucumbers and tomatoes coming in, and we are keeping a close eye on lots of baby watermelons and corn that are growing fast! 🍉🌽

This is exactly the kind of hands-on, seed-to-table experience our students get to be a part of. And speaking of students...

🍂 Fall Registration is OPEN! 🍂
Our 12-week Fall semester programs kick off September 1, 2026 and we want YOUR student to join us! Whether they are interested in agriculture, culinary arts, or retail operations, we are ready to help them build authentic 21st-century workplace readiness skills.

How to enroll your student:

Public School Students: Contact your school's IEP Case Manager and ask for a referral to our center.

Transitioning Youth: Reach out to your local DARS counselor to request a referral for our programs.

Homeschool & Private Pay Families: Call us directly to set up a tour and get your registration packet!

Spots are limited to ensure we maintain our highly supervised 1-to-4 staff-to-student ratio, so don't wait!

Share this post with any families who might be interested, and let’s get these students growing! 🌻

Www.workskillstrainingcenterforyouth.org

08/02/2026

Look what is growing at the center! 🌱🍅🥒

We are so incredibly excited to announce that we have harvested our very first vegetables! As you can see in the pictures, our garden is thriving. We have beautiful baby cucumbers and tomatoes coming in, and we are keeping a close eye on lots of baby watermelons and corn that are growing fast! 🍉🌽

This is exactly the kind of hands-on, seed-to-table experience our students get to be a part of. And speaking of students...

🍂 Fall Registration is OPEN! 🍂
Our 12-week Fall semester programs kick off September 1, 2026 and we want YOUR student to join us! Whether they are interested in agriculture, culinary arts, or retail operations, we are ready to help them build authentic 21st-century workplace readiness skills.

How to enroll your student:

Public School Students: Contact your school's IEP Case Manager and ask for a referral to our center.

Transitioning Youth: Reach out to your local DARS counselor to request a referral for our programs.

Homeschool & Private Pay Families: Call us directly to set up a tour and get your registration packet!

Spots are limited to ensure we maintain our highly supervised 1-to-4 staff-to-student ratio, so don't wait!

Share this post with any families who might be interested, and let’s get these students growing! 🌻

Www.workskillstrainingcenterforyouth.org

07/25/2026

Growth, flexibility, and a whole lot of fun! 🌱 This week our students tackled community site visits, learned all about livestock, and handled a last-minute menu change at our Community Lunch like absolute pros. 🍔
Things don’t always go as planned, but watching these students pivot and step up was the ultimate highlight. They are so ready for the workforce! We are closing up shop until September to get ready for our 12-week programs. See you in the Fall! 🍂
👇 Head to our website to register or reach out to your IEP/DARS counselor!
workskillstrainingcenterforyouth.org

07/25/2026

That’s a wrap on our second week of summer camp at the Work Skills Training Center for Youth Incorporated!

We had an incredibly busy and fun week. Our students headed out for site visits to learn all about jobs at Goodwill, the Augusta County Fairgrounds, and Mountain View Farm Greenhouses. We even squeezed in a trip to a petting zoo, where the group learned the names, breeds, and classifications of goats, pigs, cows, and sheep! 🐐🐖🐄🐑

Yesterday was our second Friday Community Lunch, and the turnout was amazing—we had double the attendance of our first meal! We did have a slight hiccup when we burnt the dumplings right before we were supposed to open, but my fiancé completely saved the day by bringing in burgers! 🍔

I am so incredibly proud of how flawlessly our students pivoted. They jumped right into slicing onions, tomatoes, and lettuce for the burgers. Our server, who had practiced his script for salad and chicken and dumplings all week, had to completely change his routine on the fly to ask what each person wanted on their burger. That is a lot to remember, but he did a really fantastic job! It ended up being the perfect life lesson for our students: things don't always go as planned, so we have to be flexible and ready to change our plans quickly.

After lunch, the students perfectly executed their newly learned skills of properly sweeping, mopping, and sanitizing the tables. Each and every student showed amazing growth this week, and they are well on their way to getting a job once they are old enough!

The center will now be closed until September so we can prepare for our upcoming 12-week semester programs. Thank you to everyone for your continued support—whether you shared our posts, attended our lunches, kept us in your prayers, or made a generous donation. We look forward to serving you again at our community lunches in the Fall! 🍂

💻 Follow us on our Website for updates! www.workskillstrainingcenterforyouth.org
If you would like to register for our 12-week semester programs or know someone who is interested, please contact us, your school IEP case manager, or your local DARS counselor.

07/21/2026

Week 2 is off to a fantastic start at the Work Skills Training Center for Youth Incorporated! 🌱🛍️

We are having another incredible week of career and tech ed, diving deep into both agriculture and retail. Here is a look at what our amazing campers have been up to:

Yesterday: Digging Deep in the Ag Lab 🌽

The Science of Soil: We learned all about pH and moisture levels, tested our own soil, and discovered exactly why these factors are so important for healthy plants.

Getting Our Hands Dirty: We tackled more weeding in the garden and successfully planted two brand-new rows of corn!

Community Field Trip: We took a trip to the beautiful Mountain View Farm Greenhouses in Rockbridge Baths. A massive thank you to the owner, Signe Lewis, who gave us a wonderful tour. She is incredibly kind, amazingly knowledgeable, and took the time to answer all of our students' questions!

Today: Real-World Retail Skills 🏷️

Learning at Goodwill: We traveled to Lexington for an excellent behind-the-scenes tour of Goodwill! We learned about the different jobs available, how they offer workplace accommodations, and even squeezed in a little bit of shopping after the tour.

Stocking at Goshen Convenience: We put our real-world skills to the test by helping unload and put away the delivery truck at Goshen Convenience. The students did a phenomenal job—they remembered to rotate the stock (putting new products in the back!) and perfectly faced all the merchandise.

Speed & Accuracy: Back in our retail classroom, we put ourselves to the test! We timed ourselves doing our daily jobs to see if we could beat our own personal records. They are getting faster and more efficient every single day!

We are so incredibly proud of the hard work and enthusiasm these students bring. Stay tuned for more updates as our second week of camp continues!

07/18/2026

🎉 Our very first community meal was a huge success! 🎉

Our students at the Work Skills Training Center for Youth Inc. had so much fun serving you. A massive THANK YOU to everyone who came out to support us! The food was absolutely delicious, and we were so proud to see our students practicing all the hospitality and culinary skills they worked so hard to learn throughout the week. 🍽️👨‍🍳

An absolutely amazing job to all of our students, and thank you again to our wonderful community!

Missed out on the fun? Don't worry! You will have another opportunity to join us next week:
📅 Friday, July 24
⏰ 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

We can't wait to see you there! 👋


We still have a few spots open for summer camp next week. Enroll on our website. Www.workskillstrainingcenterforyouth.org

07/15/2026

Culinary Skills, Kitchen Safety, and a Trip to Kroger!

Today, our students traded in their garden tools and retail shelves for aprons and grocery carts as we dove into the culinary arts and the grocery retail industry. It was another fantastic day of authentic, hands-on learning!

Kitchen Safety & Culinary Basics

We started our morning by focusing on the absolute essentials of working in food service: hygiene and kitchen safety. Before anyone touched an ingredient, we covered the critical rules for preventing cross-contamination.
To ensure we were up to industry standards, everyone donned their proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), including aprons, hats, and gloves. Once we were prepped and ready, we tackled the science of measuring. Students learned the important differences between dry measuring cups and spoons versus liquid measuring cups, and everyone got to practice accurately measuring with both.
To put our new skills to a delicious test, we worked together to bake a fantastic "Ugly Duckling Cake"!

Exploring Grocery Retail at Kroger

In the afternoon, we took a field trip to our local Kroger to get a behind-the-scenes look at how a major grocery store operates.
We were treated to an incredible tour by the store manager, Logan, who did an amazing job showing us the ropes. We also had the privilege of meeting Willie, a dedicated employee who has been with Kroger for 21 years! Learning directly from experienced professionals is invaluable, and our students absorbed a ton of great information. In fact, a few of our students left the tour feeling highly motivated and are now very interested in applying for stocking jobs there!

Prepping for Friday & Daily Reflection

While we were at Kroger, we put our practical life skills to use by doing all the necessary grocery shopping for our highly anticipated community meal coming up this Friday.
After returning to the center, we wrapped up our busy day with a quiet moment of reflection in our journals. It is incredible to see how much confidence and capability these students are building day by day. Check back tomorrow to see what industry we explore next!

www.workskillstrainingcenterforyouth.org