Education & Career Resource Center

The Education & Career Resource Library will be re-opening next month. It has taken until now for all the new materials to arrive. we have had to update all the materials. We have been updating information on colleges and universities, art schools, culinary schools, and trade schools for 2023 - 2024 entrance cycle; as well as financial aid application information in both English and Spanish; college entrance exams preparation materials; professional exam preparation materials, such as for the nursing, CMA, CDL, pharmacy tech, and finance/insurance career exams. The updated career and educational outreach materials are being organized at this time. We have plans to work with the Port Charlotte Library to provide college prep and financial aid workshops for teens and their families in the future. We also have a group of volunteers to provide career guidance and mentoring for teens.

Before COVID, our Education & Career Resource Library was lacking in materials for budding entrepreneurs and the small business owners. In the reopening of the Library we felt that it was important, being that almost half of the residents of Charlotte County are living paycheck to paycheck, that we provide resources for our youth, our working families, and our seniors to be able to start their own businesses and run them successfully.

Cooper Street Recreation Center and FGCU Small Business Development Center have partnered to make the Education & Career Research Library full-service through the opening of a SBDC office at the Education & Career Resource Library. SBCD has two staff members on hand to provide business counseling and training to assist small businesses and entrepreneurs in the community, so now will we be able to provide education and career options of various types to youth, jobseekers, and business people.