Youth employment program transforms lives

By DAVID MATHIS

Transformation is at the core of everything we at the Oneida County Office of Workforce Development do with the youth who work in our Summer Youth Employment Program.

This summer, the Recovery Act gave us additional funding. We used this money to create additional work opportunities to help youth from ages 14 through 24 learn new skills so they are more focused on careers, if they are still in high school, or more employable if they are out of school.

This summer’s accomplishments:

• 772 youth were served in our programs, including 242 youth who were funded by the Recovery Act.
• At work sites sampled by the General Accounting Office, 100 percent of youth achieved work readiness.
• 570 youth were from Utica, including minority and refugee populations whose only hope for summer employment was this program.

Oneida County has always been aggressive about our Summer Youth Employment Program. This year, as in past years, programs have included creative activities such as these:
 

• Students learned construction skills through building a barn that would be used at the Utica Zoo.
• Youth learned civil engineering skills through site visits and hands-on activities regarding bridge safety.
• Teens learned about principles of wind and other sources of renewable energy, and how that translates into a career.
• Waterville-area young people learned about media technology and production.
• A partnership between Faxton-St. Luke’s Healthcare and the School and Business Alliance gave young people hands-on experience in health care.
• High school students in programs such as Upward Bound and Young Scholars learned valuable career planning lessons to help them set high goals.
• Rome youth made a major impact by helping community-based organizations with maintenance and operations.

But this summer, due to the Recovery Act, we were able to create new programs that focused on the highest-needs population of our region – older youth neither in education or workers. This is an important population because these are the youth who need to reconnect with education and employment to realize their potential. These programs were costly – they paid wages for youth who worked 12 weeks or so — but they were a necessary investment in the future of our young people and our region.

We employed 90 youth through programming in partnership with the Utica Municipal Housing Authority and Mohawk Valley Community College. Of these, 44 youth participated in two vital community projects – the creation of an Internet Café at the Vet Center in downtown Utica and the creation of the REACH Microenterprise Center in Rome. The work done by these youth – under the director of MVCC staff – served the Recovery Act’s purpose of making our investments in training also investments in reviving our communities.

Of the 44 youth, 90 percent acquired certification through the Lead Safe Program; 80 percent worked the full 12 weeks of training; 13 without GEDs went to acquire that vital credential; 5 went to work; 13 are heading to MVCC, while 17 are looking for further construction skills training.

These programs transformed lives and took the first steps in the re-use of vacant downtown buildings. Transforming lives; transforming communities. That’s what the Office of Workforce Development did this summer. That’s not just what the Recovery Act wanted – it was what this community needed.

David Mathis is director of Oneida County Office of Workforce Development.