By Sam Parsons

The Ottumwa community school board met last night and received a presentation from their Teen Outreach Program on their activities this year. It was shared that students in the program have volunteered a total of 988 hours this school year. The program also included Mental Health First Aid training, two blood drives, and their Stomp Out the Stigma group, which featured group activities and projects focused on promoting mental health awareness.

The board received another presentation updating them on Career and Technical Education (CTE). The presentation included a discussion on the Department of Labor’s Youth Systems Building Academy, which aims to “provide training and technical assistance to workforce systems and their community partners to help them explore, design, test, implement or expand approaches to attract young workers and support them once they join the workforce”. Ottumwa was one of 9 communities across the country to be selected to participate in the program.