Patrick highlights $5.6M for job programs

LYNN - Gov. Deval Patrick highlighted Tuesday his administration's funding of more than $5.6 million for YouthWorks summer jobs programs this summer, as part of a comprehensive approach that coordinates education, employment and support services to increase opportunity and development for young people throughout the state.

The $1.2 million in funding is slightly higher than the $629,000 that Patrick originally proposed back in February, providing a necessary increase for these programs during what has proven to be a very tight budget season.

The YouthWorks program money is earmarked for summer job programs at non-profit organizations, businesses in the private sector and local colleges that help struggling, low-income and "at-risk" teenagers and young adults find summer employment when they are not in school.

Through the funding, which is administered through the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development's Commonwealth Corporation, regional workforce investment boards will leverage other resources, including those jobs paid for by private sector employers, to expand the number of youth employment opportunities.

The YouthWorks initiative helps employers pay for the wages of those summer job placements where youth can take part in a variety of different job opportunities including maintenance, landscaping, camp counseling or specific vocational skills such as culinary arts or wood working.

"Summer jobs raise the hopes and skills of young people in the Commonwealth and give them the opportunity to work hard and earn," said Patrick. "This investment in the YouthWorks summer jobs program is critical to the youth who will be on the job and off the streets this summer."

YouthWorks employs low-income youth in 25 cities and towns in Massachusetts, including Lynn, Salem and Revere, providing over 3,200 summer jobs last year.

Despite this advancement, the percentage of teens in the labor force statewide has declined dramatically since 1999 from 57 percent to just 48 percent in 2006, and the employment rate of teens declined from 53 percent in 1999 to 39 percent in 2006, with an even larger decline in large urban areas with low income families, such as Lynn.

"An important part of preventing violence is engaging youth at the community level," said Assistant Secretary for Children, Youth and Families Marilyn Chase. "Solutions to public health issues facing our youth are a direct result of increased collaboration across youth serving organizations and agencies, as well as from the youth themselves. This grant program will provide the resources that will support positive youth development."

The YouthWorks funding comes just months after Patrick and Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Suzanne Bump announced $3.1 million in grant funding for all of the Commonwealth Corporation's summer job programs, $50,000 of which went to the North Shore Workforce Investment Board, with offices in Lynn and Salem.

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