New Santa Barbara County Programs Invest in Youths
http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/071509_new_santa_barbara_county_programs_invest_in_youths/
By Giana Magnoli, Noozhawk Staff Writer
Youth Corps and the Summer Internship and Public Service Initiative will put local students to work and help them transition into careers
A brainstorming meeting of Santa Barbara County administrators and local mayors has led to the creation of two $1 million youth work programs.
First District Supervisor Salud Carbajal, an initiator of that meeting last year, “couldn’t be happier” with the results: the Santa Barbara County Youth Corps and the Summer Internship and Public Service Initiative.
“As an elected official, I get goosebumps, because (this is) what we should be doing,” he said Wednesday.
The county supervisors and Workforce Investment Board announced a $1.1 million two-year contract creating Youth Corps, a program that will “foster in youth a positive work ethic, commitment to community and models of teamwork,” WIB executive director Ray McDonald said.
The program was funded by the Workforce Investment Act and will begin Oct. 1. It will be overseen by the Community Action Commission of Santa Barbara County.
Youth Corps is designed to be a communitywide, structured youth work program, Carbajal said. The program will target at-risk students, mostly ages 16 to 21, who are not planning to attend college.
Youth Corps members, expected to number about 125 to start, will work in many areas, including public works, volunteering, tutoring, and parks and recreation projects throughout the county, McDonald said.
Many members will start with volunteer positions and move to paid jobs, which “absolutely” have the potential to lead to full-time occupations, he said.
“We have so many projects already, the first year is probably taken care of,” McDonald said.
The summer internship program for high school students, which is contracted for this and next summer, pays $8 an hour and matches the students with careers they want to pursue. The $1.9 million funding came from federal stimulus money and will be carried out countywide, WIB public information specialist Victoria Sanchez said.
“I know the good these programs do firsthand,” Carbajal said.
He said it was his responsibility as an elected official to take the initiative to look for youth violence solutions.
“Gangs are the jobs (for many of the kids); that’s how they make their money,” he said. “If we take them out of gangs, we have to replace it with a job.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Giana Magnoli can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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