He’s heard the stories.

Now William Ernest Porter is actively trying to solve a big problem facing black high school students in the city — finding a job.

Rather than wringing his hands about the 40 percent unemployment rate for black youths, the retired 69-year-old government and business executive has begun his own program to provide work.

The Richmond resident calls it “The Way” Youth Initiative.

It’s still a small initiative.

This summer, Mr. Porter teamed with local businesses to provide paid internships for seven students from George Wythe High School.

“I opted for a direct and simple approach,” says Mr. Porter. That approach: TWYI covered “the cost of wages” to entice mostly small companies to hire the students during the summer vacation.

In exchange for earning $9 an hour, the students had to agree to dress appropriately, speak well, come to work on time and be committed to completing assigned tasks accurately and on deadline.

He was able to place eager participants at places ranging from the Richmond Free Press to a tax preparation firm to VCU Medical Center.

He knows the importance of work and the important values it teaches. He remembers his first job — picking up rotten apples from a farm orchard and feeding the pigs. He also remembers a summer job counting sheets and pillowcases at a commercial laundry.

Through TWYI, he’s wants to ensure participating students learn to listen, follow directions and gain confidence in speaking and handling a paycheck.

Aside from a church donation, he and his wife, Sharon, are digging into their own pockets to provide the funding. Mr. Porter remains hopeful the program will eventually attract the support of foundations, government agencies or individuals who see the need to ensure young people gain work experience.

He started his initiative while living in Alexandria and brought it to Richmond when he and his wife moved here in 2012.

He says he founded TWYI after serving as a volunteer mentor at a high school and realizing he wanted to go beyond just providing advice.

Mr. Porter brings plenty of experience in private business and state government to his nonprofit venture.

During the administration of Gov. L. Douglas Wilder in the early 1990s, he served as deputy secretary of economic development and then as deputy chief of staff to the governor.

One of the early students in the field of computer science, he’s also been a U.S. patent examiner, led engineering productivity improvement for General Electric’s aerospace division, headed strategic planning and e-commerce efforts for Trigon Blue Cross Blue Shield and led systems integration projects for a high-tech firm called Centech Corp.

He says he and his wife chose Richmond as their retirement home because “we knew our way around, liked the city, enjoyed the people we knew and loved worshipping at First Baptist Church of South Richmond.”

His goal is to have a positive impact on the city’s youth through his initiative.

A close-up of this week’s Personality, William E. Porter:

Birthplace: Catskill, N.Y.

Current home: Richmond.

Alma maters: Syracuse University, magna cum laude, bachelor’s degree in mathematics; Phi Beta Kappa, 1967; Purdue University, master’s degree in computer science, 1969; George Washington University, juris doctor, 1979; Virginia Union University, master’s of divinity, 2010.

Family: Wife of 48 years, Sharon Brodhead Porter; son, the Rev. DeNon A. Porter, associate pastor of Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church, Los Angeles; daughter, Dr. Jerlym P. Adams, psychologist, St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital; Memphis, Tenn.

When TWYI was founded: April 26, 2011.

What motivated me to found TWYI: After being a mentor for several years for minority males at Alexandria’s T.C. Williams High School of “Remember the Titans” movie fame, I realized more was needed. I founded TWYI to provide life-skill and job-skill training to rising high school seniors. This idea was borrowed from a Mississippi church I visited with my daughter.

Number of participants: This summer, there were seven students in training at businesses or organizations.

What I envisioned for TWYI: My vision then remains my vision now: To select and train the students for work, to offer to pay them wages and to seek out businesses to provide the work. TWYI also sets up relationships with parents and high school administrators. I’ve created the paperwork to enable other groups to replicate TWYI’s efforts.

What TWYI has been able to accomplish: The students have been able to build relationships with employers and supervisors that can continue through the year. Students and parents also are pleased the jobs came with pay so the student could help with family expenses and purchase back-to-school clothes and supplies. The jobs have helped participants learn to get up, get ready, get to work on time. Participating students also are showing more confidence in the way they speak and interact with adults.

TWYI’s mission: To enable participants to experience life as an employee. I want them to be able to listen and follow directions; commit to and complete tasks; learn the importance of speaking well and keeping their word; and to learn to manage a paycheck.

Partners: George Wythe High School and Assistant Principal Derek Mason, who helps identify and select participants; Third Baptist Church of Alexandria, which makes an annual financial contribution. And the placement sites: Associated Educational Services of Virginia, Fifth Baptist Church, Fiscal Fitness Tax & Financial Services, Inc., K&P Financial LLC, the Metropolitan Business League, Michael Jones State Farm Insurance Agency, the Richmond Free Press and the VCU Medical Center.

Reason for initiative’s name: Before we were called Christians, we were known as Followers of The Way, hence “The Way” Youth Initiative.

How teens are recruited: We seek students with reasonable grades who want to work and can benefit from some male mentoring. Students fill out an application, go through an interview and are ranked. The selected students are guaranteed a job by TWYI and the assigned business determines the specifics of their job. So far, only one student has worked directly with TWYI.

Dream for initiative: To receive grant funding and expand the program to other schools.

First summer job: My very first summer job was working for a farmer picking up rotten apples and feeding the farmer’s pigs. My first company summer job was counting sheets and pillowcases for a commercial laundry in the Catskill Mountains. I got that job because I claimed an expertise in counting very accurately. And, I did!

Nobody knows: I plan to go up in a hot-air balloon on my 70th birthday next May.

The persons who influenced me the most: My dad, who taught me how to be a man and a gentleman, and my older brother, Tommie, who showed me that I could be a good athlete and excel academically just like him.

Book that influenced me the most: “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” by Frederick Douglass.

What I am reading now: “The God I Never Knew”: How Real Friendship with the Holy Spirit Can Change Your Life” by Robert Morris.