Melissa Bailey Photo
Youth@Work alum James Baker-Howard, youth services chief Bartlett and Mayor Harp applaud a $35K donation from Tariq Farid.
After losing thousands of dollars from the feds and the state for its summer jobs program for teens, New Haven has reached a milestone in an effort to raise private money to rebuild the program.
New Haven has raised enough money to pay for 500 teenagers to get summer jobs through its Youth@Work program, Mayor Toni Harp announced in a press conference Thursday. Youth@Work, which places kids aged 14 to 17 into 5‑week summer jobs, served 748 kids last year. This year, the program is at risk of shrinking dramatically due to a reduction in funding from the state and federal governments, Harp said.
Harp’s youth services chief, Jason Bartlett, has been sending out letters to businesses asking for private donations to keep the program going. The goal is to restore the program to serve 1,200 teens, as it did at the height of the program a few years ago.
Harp pitched the Youth@Work program as a solution to quelling the violent crime that has been plaguing city streets — and that typically spikes in summer months.
“If they really want to see the streets safe, they should be hiring our young people,” she said.
Tariq Farid (pictured), the founder of Edible Arrangements, heard that pitch from Bartlett and answered with a $35,000 donation. He presented a check to the city Thursday afternoon from his new personal philanthropic arm, the Tariq Farid Foundation.
Farid, who moved to the U.S. from Pakistan at age 12, grew up in West Haven. In 1999, he started a small company in East Haven, Edible Arrangements, offering gift baskets of fresh fruit, cut in fun floral shapes. The company now has 1,400 stores in 49 states and 14 countries (including one in downtown New Haven). It pulls in $500 million in sales every year, he said.
Farid credited his first employer, Farricielli’s Flowers by Ginger in West Haven, with putting him on the path to a successful business. He got a job there when he was 14, stocking shelves for $20 per week.
“That was the inspiration for me getting into business,” he said. His donation to Youth@Work will enable 30 teenagers to land paid jobs this summer.
Bartlett said he has also secured donations from United Illuminating, which gave $25,000; and Bank of America, which gave $7,500. The program costs $1,200 per teenager.
Harp said 1,200 teenagers applied for the program this year; 700 will have to be turned away unless other donors step up.
She introduced James Baker-Howard (pictured at the top of this story) as a poster child for the program. Baker-Howard did Youth@Work three times. He worked at the city lighthouse and at the Hot Shot basketball program at Hillhouse High. That experience helped him land a spot as an intern at the city’s youth services bureau.
Arifa Singh (pictured), a Hillhouse High senior who also attended the press conference, said she spent one summer at Youth@Work, working for Chaka Felder’s Higher Heights college readiness program. She said she learned important skills, such as how to take phone calls. Initially, when she answered the phone, she would hang up without taking a message.
“Ms. Felder, someone called,” she would say.
“I got in a lot of trouble for that,” Arifa recalled. She learned to write down the name and number of the caller. She said when she does an internship with United Illuminating this summer, she’ll make sure not to repeat that mistake.