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Pittsfield Gets Funding to Put Youth to WorkBy Nichole Dupont
iBerkshires Staff
12:17PM / Thursday, July 15, 2010
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — It's hard enough for teenagers to find employment in any area, and even harder for at-risk youth in a still tightening economy. More than a quarter of all teen ages 16 to 19 nationwide are unemployed; in Massachusetts, it's even higher with more than a third not working.
In an effort to boost the morale and the circumstances of the state's at-risk youth, Gov. Deval Patrick is committing $9.1 million to provide 4,700 jobs for thousands of at-risk young people this summer, giving students a safe and productive way to spend their time off from school.
The funds are a combination of fiscal 2010 and 2011 state funding plus American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds that were reserved for this summer. Pittsfield (one of 25 cities selected in Massachusetts) is the only eligible city in Berkshire County that has received a portion of these earmarked funds. According to Heather Shogry, youth director for the Berkshire County Regional Employment Board Inc., Pittsfield was awarded $49,000. These funds (which are in addition to the $40,000 the city received back in March) will allow an additional 50 young people into the region's Youth Works employment program.
"It was a nice July 4 surprise," Shogry said. "Right before the holiday weekend, we got the call that we would be getting some of the money. We're thrilled. Now it's a mad dash because within the next two weeks we need to get more employers and youth on board to place these young people in jobs."
 Lanesborough Elementary School, Barrington Stage Company, Goodwill Industries, Berkshire Community College and Canyon Ranch are just a few of the area businesses that employ young people from the city for the summer. Ed Aherne, custodial director at Lanesborough Elementary, has acted as a mentor and supervisor to kids employed by Youth Works since 2005. He said every year is different, but that all in all, the experience has been a positive one, both for the young people whom he supervises and for the school itself.
"Some of the kids come in here and they really have no experience," he said. "But they leave here with a lot of experience. It saves the district money to have them here and it gets them into the work force."
Besides stripping floors, washing windows, hauling furniture and cleaning out classrooms, Aherne said the young people who work for him are also increasing their value in the work force.
"All of this stuff leads to better jobs," Aherne said. "The hope is that they will get permanent jobs once they have this experience. It's such a benefit to everyone."
 Especially to the kids. Shogry has been working off a waiting list since the BCREB first began receiving Youth Works funding in 2005. She said there is a special push by the state to place older youths in temporary summer employment.
"We have been charged by the state to place older, out-of-school youths ages 16 to 21," she said. "We're hoping to turn these summer jobs into permanent employment opportunities. It's tremendous. You can take some kids who have completely failed in education, plug them into a work experience and it's magical. Some get their GED and begin to take life seriously. We're very thankful for this." |
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