Jabez Choi photo
Youth@Work participant David Uzuka: "It's a great opportunity."
The city’s youth employment program welcomed 748 students aged 14 to 21 into the workforce this summer, across more than 100 worksites.
A press conference celebrating the Youth@Work program — which kickstarted July 1 — was held Wednesday afternoon at Hill Regional Career High School, right outside a gymnasium filled with kids playing basketball.
City Youth and Recreation Department Director Dr. Gwendolyn B. Williams noted that this summer is the first instance that every single young person who submitted a completed application received a job offer.
Out of 882 applications, which included incomplete applications, Youth@Work offered 785 offers of employment, with 748 students ultimately accepting. This year is also the first year that applications to the program were digital, according to Williams.
“They’re doing great things. They’re working with our children, they’re working in our offices, and that’s the kind of support they need,” State Rep. Toni Walker said. “It makes them responsible.”
The program has expanded. According to Williams, the program employed 526 young people last summer. Then, the program was at “capacity” and couldn’t take on any more students. Williams thanked the efforts of the city for increased funding to the program. The city has budgeted $1.9 million for the program this summer, with $1 million from ARPA funds and $900,000 from the city’s general fund.
Students apply to the program and are placed in worksites, ideally near their homes to avoid transportation barriers. Williams noted that in the past, only about 60 – 70 worksites partnered with Youth@Work. Now, after an outreach effort, over 100 programs have partnered with Youth@Work to offer employment to students. Students have the chance to make $2,000 for the summer, working 25 hours a week maximum, for five weeks, and earning $16 an hour — more than Connecticut’s minimum wage of $15.69 an hour.
“We are giving the child the ability to answer the rhetorical question from their parents: ‘Do you have McDonald’s money?’” Williams said.
Aside from Williams and Walker, the press conference was attended by Mayor Justin Elicker, Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers, city Community Services Administrator Eliza Halsey, New Haven Public Schools Supt. Dr. Madeline Negrón, State Rep. Patricia Dillon, and Newhallville Alder Kimberly Edwards, among Youth@Work representatives and participants.
Elicker highlighted the efforts of the Youth@Work team and students, as well as recent efforts to increase youth services. He cited examples such as the $12.7 million secured for the renovation of Floyd Little Athletic Center and $2.5 million for the Career Pathways Initiative.
Deputy Director of Youth Services Ronald Huggins worked at a media center, and eventually a library, through Youth@Work when he was 14. He attributed the program with allowing him to learn skills that helped him get into college — and with teaching him how to balance a checkbook.
Right now, for Aliyah Bright, a sophomore at New Haven Academy, the income is a chance for her to buy back-to-school clothes. Bright heard about the program in her school cafeteria and figured that she could use the extra cash. She will be working with Sullivan Academy this summer, and she was supervising the rowdy kids inside the gymnasium prior to the press conference.
“I wanted to have that firsthand work opportunity,” Bright said. “And I love working with kids.”
New Haven Youth and Recreation Department Director Dr. Gwendolyn B. Williams.