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Painting company hiring young men to give them hands-on experience
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BATON ROUGE – A business owner in Baton Rouge is taking a different approach when it comes to hiring.
Instead of choosing a candidate with the most experience, he's hiring people with the least in an effort to help younger men reach their highest potential.
"Most kids want to be rappers or basketball players, and we want to show them they can be successful in doing other things. You may be a doctor, a lawyer, travel the world, and give speeches. Let us find your gift,” said Reggie Morgan.
Morgan who owns the company, The Paint Crew, is hiring his workers younger than normal. He started an organization called 'Let It Slide' geared to teaching the youth not to turn to violence.
"We try to grab them before the streets grab them; before it's too late. We even get them off of the streets, if they want the help and to listen we'll get them off of the streets,” said Morgan.
Taking it a step further, he's now giving them the opportunity to do something positive.
“We take away the guns and give them nail guns, roofing guns, and caulk guns,” said Morgan.
Other businesses are joining in as well. Timothy Morgan, who owns Satisfaction Maintenance is teaching his new hires some manual labor.
“It's really amazing how grateful a lot of them are just to have someone. I had one say you are like a father to me. Just being able to connect to someone who I guess they see as a father figure and being inspired by that,” said Timothy.
So far ten young men have benefited from this program.
“Some of them have moved on to have their own businesses and their own apartments. We teach them how to get bank accounts, we teach them how to get credit so we're in it for the long haul."
Morgan is partnering with Empower 225, an organization that assists at-risk youth to help him connect with young men looking for a job.
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