NORTHEAST TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) — The Florida Sheriffs Association is investing millions of dollars in a new youth learning center designed to inspire the next generation of public safety professionals.
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The association has launched a campaign to build a 22,000-square-foot youth learning center in northeast Tallahassee. Sheriffs have already committed $2 million to the project and are now raising another $1 million to complete the building.
"They come to this training facility, they train, they see things and say yeah I want to do this with my life. It creates passionate young people," said neighbor Zachary Hosey.
The center will feature hands-on exhibits, a mock 9-1-1 dispatch center, crime scene investigations, and other experiences designed to introduce students to careers in public safety.
Logan Lewkow, deputy executive director of operations for the Florida Sheriffs Association, said the center is meant to build a pipeline of future recruits.
"We're hoping that this is going to build a pipeline of future law enforcement officers. We're hoping that you're going to see kids that during career day are gonna be wearing you know their law-enforcement star and their badge as they say hey I wanna be a law-enforcement officer I wanna work in corrections. I want to be a dispatcher like really bringing in that public safety field back to career day," Lewkow said.
The center comes as agencies across the country continue to recruit new deputies. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, sheriff's offices reported more than 16,000 vacant deputy positions nationwide.
Hosey, a deputy sheriff with the Leon County Sheriff's Office, recently entered the law enforcement field. He said the new center will give students the opportunity to interact with law enforcement professionals and learn more about the job.
"As someone who grew up here, I think its incredible. I definitely didn't have anywhere like this to go to when I was a kid and I graduated a block away from here at Leon high school. So, if this would have been here when I was here, I would have 100% have been here all the time," Hosey said.
The association hopes to open the center after fundraising is complete. Leaders say they want it to serve students from across Florida for generations to come.
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