Teens Rally at City Hall for their Summer Jobs

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On a recent budget-slashing spree, Gov. Paterson has proposed eliminating the state’s $20 million contribution to the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), leading city teens to voice their displeasure with a 200-person rally in City Hall Park on Thursday. The program, which placed a record 52,000 14-24 year-old youths in summer jobs last year, is facing cutbacks of more than 33% for the coming summer.

Since the 1970s, SYEP has given summer jobs to kids from low-income families in the offices of elected officials, small businesses, hospitals, and childcare centers. The proposed budget cuts come in conjunction with the disappearance of another $18 million in federal stimulus funds and Mayor Bloomberg's proposed additional $1 million cut, leaving about $25 million in city and federal money and limiting the young people who receive summer jobs to about 17,000.

The cuts come as a double blow to family service programs, since 41% of youth employed through SYEP help staff more than 2,400 free summer camps. Betsy Fabricant, who runs Visions Center on Blindness, a Rockland County camp for blind youth, employs roughly 10% of her staff through SYEP. She tells the Times, "If we don't have enough staff, we have to limit the number of people we can serve in any particular session, and that's hard."

The funding for SYEP largely came from excess welfare funding in years past, but with increased welfare caseloads, that excess is dwindling, causing major cutbacks in many low-income programs in recent months. "Without [SYEP] kids would be on the street, standing on the corner, doing I don't know what instead of earning money," said 16-year-old Bronx resident Nachaell Gonzalez at yesterday's protest.

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By Zoe Schlanger in News on April 2, 2010 4:35 PM

Comments [rss]

Naturalboy

If they wanted an honest wage, why not just grab a summer gig at one of our American Maquiladoras down where we just got back from spring break?

Better yet, stop whining & do what all kids do these daze: Strut stores with one hand twattering tweeter, the other spuriously flipping hair & flapping Barneys bag.

Now that's work!

solidago

These kids should be protesting against the minimum wage. Or at least advocating some sort of "starter wage" for kids just looking for money to spend at the mall and get a taste of what having a job is like. Who's going to hire a kid with minimal skills at $7.25 an hour? That's "real money." Add to that all the paperwork involved with having an employee and it's surprising any teens have jobs.

Fadlo K. Shell

$7.25 an hour? That's "real money."

You're kidding, right?

bashmentgirl

I hope the governor doesn't eliminate these funds because many children from low income households use the money from their summer jobs to buy school clothes in the fall.

Darrell

Businesses love to abuse SYEP because they essentially getting a ton of low skilled workers for free since no business that uses the system (public or private) contribute at all to SYEP's pay fund.I mean if they are going to get workers guaranteed at low wages, the least they could do is pay some sort of registration fee, like 500 bucks or something.

jackie treehorn

seems to me that maintaining funding for this would be a good idea if only just for for defensive reasons. kids employed by this program are not forced to find other ways to entertain themselves.