Supervisors Approve Summer Youth Jobs

P R E S S R E L E A S E
CEO No. 09–006
April 21, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News Media Contact:
William Boyer, Communications Director
(805) 568-3400
wboyer@co.santa-barbara.ca.us
OR
Raymond McDonald, Executive Director, Workforce Investment Board
(805) 681-4453

Santa Barbara County Supervisors Approve Summer Youth Jobs

A Summer Youth Jobs Program co-sponsored by Santa Barbara County First District Supervisor Salud Carbajal and Fifth District Supervisor Joe Centeno, Board Chair, today, April 21, 2009, received unanimous support from the full Board of Supervisors. The effort will help employ about 40 youths, ages 16 to 18, with summer jobs in various County departments.

Funding for the program comes from the federal American Recovery & Reinvestment Act recently signed by President Obama, but the program’s genesis began more than a year ago when supervisors Carbajal and Centeno began working with city representatives, school officials and others throughout the county to address the issues and challenges of finding jobs for youth. The Board voted 4-0 for the project, with Fourth District Supervisor Joni Gray absent.

“The Summer Youth Jobs program is a piece of the puzzle we began working on a year ago to create a comprehensive effort at improving youth employment opportunities and their successful transition to the workforce,” Supervisor Carbajal said. “On a larger, more strategic scale, we recently initiated the Out-Of-School jobs program, so when the stimulus funding became available we were able to immediately apply that to the Summer Youth Jobs effort to provide some job skills training in public service.”

Board Chair Centeno said the program is a “win-win” for the County and local youths. “It’s a great match,” Centeno said. “We create jobs for youths without spending General Fund monies to help them earn a wage while learning about how the public sector serves the community.”

Employment begins July 6 and runs through August 28, 2009. The youths will work about 25 hours per week, earning $8 per hour. The program will allow various County departments to create temporary jobs for the youth where they will learn about County government, as well as various professions like engineering, medical and video production, coupled with knowledge about the operations and organization of the specific department they are working for and the overall goals and ideals of public service.

Application information from the Workforce Investment Board (WIB) is available by calling Leonard Gonzales, Summer Youth Coordinator, at (805) 681-4453. The County’s Workforce Investment Board, Department of Social Services, will administer the program. Successful applicants must meet economically disadvantaged guidelines and special outreach is being made to foster care youth, at-risk youths and others with disabilities or other barriers.

In addition, earlier this month the WIB announced its request for proposals for the much larger, $1 million comprehensive Out-of-School Youth jobs program. The goal is to give youth the skills and experience needed to find—and keep—employment and become successful members of the regular workforce. This program would run for 24 months, from October 1, 2009 through September 30, 2011. Bids are due back to the County by 1 p.m., Wednesday, May 27, 2009.