Summer Jobs Crisis Heats Up
Teens, Employers Await City's Plan

By HANNAN ADELY

Kaia Benjamin, a local high school student, spent last summer working at Camp Welmet, a sleep-away camp in Putnam Valley, where she was a counselor and office worker. But this summer, she has no idea what she is going to do.

That's because Benjamin could be one of thousands of teenagers who could lose a job opportunity this summer because of new federal legislation that slashes the budget of the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP). A new law, the Workforce Investment Act, would effectively cut the federally subsidized jobs slots by two-thirds, according to the Campaign for Summer Jobs, a coalition of New York City groups working to restore the funding.

"They were telling us there might not be another summer youth program," Benjamin said. "I don't know what I'll do."

The new law redirects summer job money by requiring municipalities to use 30 percent of the federal funding for young people who are no longer in school and requires all participants to be provided with year-round counseling. It also allows the state to take 15 percent of the money for other programs or administrative costs.

Some teens will still get the jobs at local stores, offices and summer camp programs, but most won't. According to Michele Yanche, coordinator of the Campaign for Summer Jobs, the city will be able to provide just 5,000 summer jobs with federal funds. Last year, the city provided jobs to 35,000 teens. An additional 5,000 jobs were also provided through the city's own funds, bringing the total to 40,000. Last year, Mosholu Montefiore Community Center (MMCC) in Norwood put 2,300 kids to work.

Because March is traditionally the time when SYEP sites traditionally begin to accept job applications, job seekers are starting to worry. Paige Baecer, a junior at DeWitt Clinton High School, said she learned about the program through her school last year. But this year, she said, "I haven't really heard about it. They usually post it by now, but I haven't seen anything."

Everything is on hold until the city releases a new summer jobs plan. Michael Anton, a spokesman for Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, said the city is putting one together now and that the city is looking for alternative funding from the private and public sectors.

In the meantime, Al Tuitt, assistant director of youth employment at MMCC, said he is concerned about what will happen to the free local recreation camps made possible by the program, which pays the salaries of teen counselors. "We have recreation programs after school in almost all of the [local] schools," he said. "Kids come out of summer school and go to the program until about 6 o'clock, so their parents can work during the day."

Lack of summer camp opportunities could have severe citywide implications, advocates say. "Nearly 14,000 youth worked as day camp counselors last summer," wrote Doug Turetsky of the Campaign for Summer Jobs in a press release. "Without this source of staff, many summer day camps will have to scale back or shut down, leaving many working families with few or no options for structured activities for their young children during the summer."

SYEP directors like Bob Altman of MMCC have to wait until the city's plan is released before they can begin making plans.

Teenagers, who usually submit applications in March, have been flooding Tuitt's office with inquiries. "We get about 80 phone calls each day and we get 20 people that stop by [asking about SYEP]," Tuitt said.

Last year at MMCC alone, Tuitt said 4,000 applications were received for 2,300 jobs. Citywide, 80,000 kids applied for 40,000 jobs, according to Yanche.

Community leaders and teens have been doing their part to rally elected officials to push for federal action. Teens from around the city filled out and delivered more than 7,000 mock summer job applications to City Hall on Feb. 22 and presented them to the mayor and City Council speaker.

"We did about 200 mock applications," said Daniel Taspripin, a youth organizer with the Mosholu Woodlawn South Community Coalition in Norwood. "We're still filling out applications." Youth members of the group distributed the applications in their high schools.

Councilwoman June Eisland said the City Council Youth Committee held a public meeting about the cutbacks and that the Council plans to keep pressure on the federal government to increase SYEP funding. "We'll end up with a crisis that's humongous this summer if kids don't have jobs," she said. "This has been a tradition in our city."

The Campaign for Summer Jobs wants the federal government to allocate emergency supplemental funding or to declare this summer "transitional" so the city can ease into the new system.

Teenagers, parents and employers have their fingers crossed. "We've sent letters to our representatives and gone to meetings," Altman said. "Now, we're just waiting."

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