Contact: Colleen Roche (212) 788-2958 or Nydia Negron (212) 788-9364
Earlier this year, the Mayor established the Commission on Youth Empowerment Services to address the employment needs of New York City's youth. The Commission's immediate priority was to maximize the number of jobs available to the City's youth during the summer of 1996, in anticipation of the elimination of the federal Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP).
After a great deal of advocacy in Washington, the City's share of the SYEP program--which is administered by the Department of Employment--will be operating at 70% of its 1995 level, allowing 22,500 young residents of New York City to be employed within the non-profit and for-profit sectors.
"While we continue our advocacy efforts, we must also reinforce our partnership with the City's private and non-profit sectors to increase the availability of employment opportunities for our young people," said Mayor Giuliani. "Under Arnold Burns' leadership, the YES Commission has been working to coordinate and manage the major summer youth employment efforts going on across New York City. This will provide for an excellent foundation for the future in the face of dwindling federal support."
As part of the comprehensive public/private sector efforts, the Mayor announced that the City had increased its commitment to its traditional add-on to the SYEP program from 3,000 to 3,800 jobs. This will provide for a total of 26,300 summer youth employment slots to be administered by the New York City Department of Employment.
Additionally, the New York City Housing Authority would be stepping up to provide 5,000 summer positions for its large resident youth population.
Symbolizing the importance of youth employment to New York City, and in the interest of posing a friendly fundraising challenge to the private sector during the last month of the YES Commission's fundraising drive, New York City has committed an additional $1 million to support 1,000 additional summer slots.
"Under the mandate of the YES Commission, we can confidently say that despite difficult budget times, the City of New York and its agencies will be doing more than ever this summer to support summer employment opportunities for our young people," said Deputy Mayor Segarra.
As he outlined the YES Commission's program for private sector outreach Mr. Burns said, "We are confident that our friends and colleagues in the business and professional community will respond significantly to the challenges made by the City and the United Way and make substantial tax deductible contributions to put our kids to work this summer. Contributions may be sent to the YES Commission at 75 Park Place, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10007 or for further information, the Commission may be contacted at 212-NYC-YES1."
Also in attendance was Paula Gavin, Managing Partner of the New York City Partnership and Chamber of Commerce's Summer Jobs '96 program. Now in its sixteenth year, the Partnership's program is operating collaboratively within the YES Commission structure to identify and develop jobs in the private sector.
As another partner in the overall YES Commission effort this year, the United Way of New York City, under the leadership of president Ralph Dickerson, Jr. has agreed to work together with each of the seven major social service federations in New York City; namely, Asian American Federation, Associated Black Charities, Catholic Charities of New York City, Catholic Charities of Brooklyn, Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, Hispanic Federation of New York City and the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies.
Within this structure, the United Way will organize and managed the placement of young people in jobs this summer within community-based organizations throughout the City's neighborhoods. These positions will be supported by funds raised by the YES Commission in conjunction with the City's $1 million challenge grant. The Board of Directors of the United Way of New York City has also allocated $400,000 of its own funds to support 400 jobs within this challenge effort.
Young people ages 14 to 21 will be participating in these programs this summer. While each program components' guidelines may differ slightly, most youth will work for seven weeks, 24 hours per week and be paid the minimum wage of $4.25 per hour. Work schedules, pay rates and age requirements within the private sector supported programs may differ.