Jamyah Taylor landed an interview with Summa Health after her uncle helped make a connection. She thought it went well, but she didn’t get the job.
Taylor, 21, will have another opportunity to make her case through a new program via the Black Chamber of Commerce — Summit County. After she completes its six-week Pathway to Purpose program, she’s guaranteed another Summa interview.
“I’m very grateful to have a second chance,” she said. “I definitely want to get a career.”
For now, Taylor is piecing things together. She delivers for Instacart and DoorDash. She makes wigs. She has a goal of learning how to do “everything in the world.”
In the four weeks since Taylor started the Pathway to Purpose program, Marcel and Mia McDaniel, the executive and operations directors of Non Stop Growth, which runs the program, have seen her progress. At the beginning of the program, Taylor wasn’t making much eye contact.
And now?
“I’ve seen her confidence grow from the first day,” Mia McDaniel said.
And that’s the point of the program — not just to help young people with resumes and interviewing skills (though they’ll also do that), but to help them improve their critical thinking skills and manage their emotions. Pathway to Purpose intends to prepare young people for careers, said Robert DeJournett, the Black Chamber’s president and CEO.
He also sees it as a violence-prevention initiative. DeJournett said all of the people accepted into the inaugural cohort have been touched by gun violence personally or through someone close to them. He hopes by helping them get work, he’ll help separate them from those experiences.
“I think this is one of those grassroots interventions that will continue to grow,” DeJournett said.
Akron-based program includes check-ins once participants start to work
There are just four participants in the first cohort — Taylor, 23-year-old Raheem Heard Jr., and Ja’Quan Hatten and Saniya Butler, both 18. Hatten and Butler will both be University of Akron students in the fall, while Heard just finished South Street Ministries’ nine-month Discipleship House Fellowship and is trying to figure out what’s next.
Thirty people applied for the first group and 12 were accepted. Six attended the first session, but only these four returned for the second.
The McDaniels, who are married, said some submitted incorrect contact information and others faced barriers to participation. DeJournett said he thinks everyone who started the program may not have understood they had to complete six weeks of coursework before securing an interview. He hopes that, in the future, he can offer a stipend to cohort graduates.
In addition to the lessons, the program will include weekly check-ins for the first 90 days of any job that participants obtain, so the McDaniels or others can intervene early in the event there are any issues.
“I’m hoping they see when you’re looking for a career, there’s more to it than just going to get a paycheck,” DeJournett said.
On Monday, the cohort learned about what to do with their paychecks when they come. Kalyn Franklin and Drew Robinson, U.S. Bank employees, talked to them about understanding income and expenses, including what is taken out in taxes. They encouraged them to start saving, even if they have little to set aside. And they discussed the difference between needs, wants and obligations.
Mar-quetta Boddie, who runs Boddie Financial Planning Services, helped them think about emergency funds, urged them to cancel recurring subscriptions they weren’t using and talked about different ways to pay down debt.
Credit can help them get ahead quicker, but “you’ve got to have a plan,” Boddie said.
‘Now I know how to advocate for myself’
The four people participating in the 2025 cohort said they’ve found the program valuable. For Taylor, it’s the life skills such as budgeting and critical thinking that feel the most useful. For Heard, it was learning about emotional intelligence and what he does to distract himself from what he’s actually feeling.
Butler said she feels like she’s better able to recognize her triggers at work and in other environments, and Hatten learned that other people want him to succeed.
“I used to be a person who would struggle with something in class and wouldn’t ask for help,” said Hatten, a recent graduate of Buchtel Community Learning Center. “Now I know how to advocate for myself.”
Identifying the barriers to each person’s success is a key component of the program, Mia McDaniel said. Whether it’s experiences with trauma, mental health issues or knowing to show up on time, she wants participants to know that they’re not defined by what happened to them in the past.
“I want them to think about life differently and apply what they learn,” she said.
Marcel McDaniel, who is also the Street Team coordinator with Minority Behavioral Health Group, said his work in violence intervention is relevant to helping prepare people for the workforce, too. It’s giving them an emotional vocabulary and a way to express themselves is valuable in any setting.
“We’re just trying to position them to be leaders,” he said. “They’re just growing. We’re giving them new experiences.”
‘You definitely learn a lot about yourself’
Summa is the first partner in the program — DeJournett previously worked there in community and government relations. He hopes to expand Pathway to Purpose to other employers for the next cohort, which should begin this winter. A spokesperson from Summa did not make anyone available to discuss why the health system wanted to be part of the program.
DeJournett sees it as a way to help Summa and other companies vet applicants. He’s confident those who have been through the program will succeed because they’ve had help improving their lifeskills and learning how to navigate a workplace.
“You definitely learn a lot about yourself, your confidence, your worth,” Heard said. “It’s definitely teaching me a lot.”
Butler, who already works at Akron Children’s Hospital and Smoothie King, in addition to taking classes in chemistry and cyber forensics, said she hopes to land a full-time job at Summa while going to school. She hopes to learn things that are connected to her major, she said, while continuing to expand her connections.
And several members of the cohort said they particularly appreciated that speakers offered advice for them specifically as Black people working in environments that are more white. How to approach a situation “so you don’t turn it into a conflict” is important, Taylor said, while Hatten said it was helpful to be told ways he could respond because “things we do can be seen in a much different light. It can be taken a different way.”
Taylor said she’d encourage others to apply for the program, even if they’re scared.
“The outcome could be great,” she said.
That’s what DeJournett expects from her. While he suspects Taylor’s first interview didn’t go as well as she thought, he’s seen her confidence improve.
“She’s going to be well prepared,” he said.
Editor’s note: Signal Akron is a founding member of the Black Chamber of Commerce — Summit County. Rita McNeil Danish, the CEO of Signal Ohio, is a chamber board member.