Melissa Bailey Photo
Looking to the business community to help city kids find jobs, the aldermanic Black and Hispanic Caucus put forth a “DIY” proposal Monday meant to help young entrepreneurs.
The proposal was introduced at Monday’s full meeting of the Board of Aldermen, where Quinnipiac Meadows Alderman Gerry Antunes (pictured) gave the caucus’s annual State of the City address.
Antunes, a retired city policeman, began his speech by turning to a recent rash of violent crime.
“We must stand together to eliminate the root causes,” he said. He laid out a series of areas where higher expectations need to be set.
He said more needs to be done for young people — by restoring community centers like the Dixwell Q House, by getting parents involved with their kids’ lives, and by helping them find jobs.
“We must also call upon the business community to help provide jobs for our youth,” Antunes said. “I don’t mean those jobs that lead to nothing more than a paycheck. I’m talking about a job that can help stimulate the mind, or maybe direct our youth to a productive career future.”
“That’s why I am proud to join 20 of our colleagues in submitting the DIY entrepreneurship program proposal today.”
DIY stands for Development Initiative for Youth Entrepreneurship. Click here to read the proposal, which was submitted to aldermen Monday, and will be assigned to committee for a public hearing.
The proposal calls on seven institutions and the mayor’s office to get together and raise $1 million to help young entrepreneurs. It was coauthored by two caucus members, Aldermen Sergio Rodriguez and Darnell Goldson.
The goal of the proposal is tackle “the chronic issues related to unemployed youth.” The DIY bill is meant to complement Goldson’s HIRE New Haven bill, by which the city would pay businesses that hire unemployed people.
Goldson said he aims to provide more options for the 900-plus teenagers who applied to, but didn’t get accepted to, the city’s popular summer employment program, Youth At Work, last year. The program served about 1,200 kids.
The DIY bill would “solicit venture capital and provide revolving micro loans for the planning and implementation of youth driven business ventures for hard-to place-youth.”
To do that, the aldermen hope to tap into outside resources. They propose creating a steering committee “including but not limited to representatives from the mayor’s office, Yale University, Yale-New Haven Hospital, the Smilow Cancer Center, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, New Alliance Foundation, the Casey Foundation, and the [Greater New Haven] Chamber of Commerce” — “as well as our local delegation to the General Assembly and the United States Congress.”
These parties would assemble to with a task: “begin the process of raising $1 million in capital to invest in the HIRE-New Haven and D.I.Y. Entrepreneurship Fund.”
After that initial phase, the bill directs the city to “investigate methods and make recommendations to permanently endow the fund.”
Rodriguez said he hopes to connect the entrepreneurship to the development that’s planned for the Route 34 corridor. For example, he said a group of young people could be trained by Chamber of Commerce leaders to start their own Dunkin’ Donuts along that strip.
He said he was inspired by a model in New York City, where a group of homeless people started a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream joint.
Rodriguez said he hasn’t yet reached out to any of the partners listed in the resolution.
Sean Matteson, the mayor’s chief of staff, said he would review the bill and discuss it with aldermen.
“Any conversation about jobs is a good conversation to be having,” he said.