Advertisement Young adults use 'Codeworks' to get paid Youthworks Program offers productive summer opportunities for youth Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Cyber is the way of the future, and there's a group of young adults in west Baltimore using it as a safe way to spend the summer, and they're getting paid.On a summer day off from school, the young adults are hard at work."We're like coding and programming robots to do, like, what we want them to do," Chyna Davis said.They are trying to get those robots to work autonomously."Which basically means automatically, without you using one of these controllers," the instructor said.It's all part of a five-week coding boot camp called Codeworks in partnership with the mayor's Office of Employment Development Youthworks Program."We see this as an opportunity to expose youth to a new career path, a new form of thinking," said Charlotte James.It's an opportunity that comes with a paycheck."It's a good feeling that we come here. It's like a little summer job for us. We get paid for five weeks," Alexus Robinson said.Since it's summertime and school's out, another big aspect of the program is that it gives the kids and young adults not only a safe space to learn, but one to hang out in, too."They can come out here and do the job, so they won't be outside on the streets," Robinson said.While the work is in a Baltimore classroom, the message spreads far beyond."We think that by really highlighting and showcasing all of these incredible youth, and sort of changing the narrative of what a programmer looks like," James said. "That's something that we're incredibly focused on and work incredibly hard to achieve every day."It's a mission they hope to continue from the first week to the last.Get the WBAL-TV News App