The guest speaker at this week's Coconut Grove Rotary luncheon on Thursday, November 17, is Joe King, Vice President of Thelma Gibson Health Initiative.
A resident of West Coconut Grove for over 10 years, Joe became Vice President of Operations for TGHI in late 2013 to oversee growth, expansion and improvement of services at Thelma Gibson Health Initiative, Inc. Joe brought numerous staff and professional services to this small agency to include Licensed and Masters Level Counselors, Bachelor Level Care Coordinators, Certified Teachers, a Vocational Manager and an Accounting Specialist. In expanding services at TGHI, he has focused on Elderly, Community and Youth Programming, transitioning his experiences to open a vocational training component for culinary services three doors down from the TGHI offices. This employability model is currently offered to local youth, parents and families within West Coconut Grove. Canteen Cuisine has certified 48 parents and over 100 youth since inception, with an average of 79% whom are eligible for hire, maintaining a job upon graduation for three or more months.
Prior to becoming Vice President for TGHI, Joe was a senior manager for AMIkids, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping youth develop into responsible and productive citizens for over 20 years. His background in youth residential and day treatment services, teen mother programming and vocational and marine training schools has been instrumental in rehabilitating nearly 10,000 at-risk teens since stepping into an executive role in 1999. He has worked in not for profit, at-risk teen contracted service sites nationally in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and internationally in the Bahamas, Cayman Islands and Jamaica averaging an 86.5% non recidivism rate across programs he directed.
His experience includes leadership roles as Executive Director, Regional Operations Manager, National Director of Compliance and National Director of Training.
A native of Beaufort, South Carolina, Joe served in the U.S. Army's 82D Airborne Division. He holds advanced degrees and certifications in Psychology, Counseling and Business and sits on several boards. He will be speaking about the current and future goals for TGHI.
Please join them for lunch, the Rotary meets at the Coconut Grove Sailing Club (2990 South Bayshore Drive) each Thursday at 12:15 pm. Lunch is $20.
RSVP at coconutgroverotaryclub@gmail.com.