The Finger Lakes region has been awarded more than $3.9 million in the next phase of New York’s Youth Employment Program. The program, state officials say, has helped lower gun violence by connecting at-risk youth with job opportunities and training.
The Youth Employment Program also plays a role in the state’s Gun Involved Violence Elimination Initiative, which operates in 21 counties, including Monroe County. Statewide, $38.8 million has been awarded, including investments in year-round jobs and training opportunities for young people in regions that receive support from the GIVE initiative, officials say.
Roughly 2,500 low-income, at-risk youth in these areas will have access to paid work and training opportunities now until June 2025. The last phase, January to June this year, had 2,650 youth participants, who worked at sites including schools, restaurants, libraries, camps/childcare programs and schools.
State officials pointed to a decline in shootings (29 percent) through July, as reported by 28 police departments that are part of GIVE. In the first half of the year, the city of Rochester also saw a significant decline in every category of violent and property crime. City officials also credit GIVE.
The second phase of the Youth Employment Program targets youth ages 14 to 20 with a household income below 200 percent of the federal poverty level.
“Just as we partner with local law enforcement agencies working to further drive down gun violence, we support community-based organizations providing mentoring, and programs and services for youth and families,” says Rossana Rosado, Division of Criminal Justice Services commissioner. “Access to year-round employment for youth is critical and complements our efforts.”
Program providers are encouraged to collaborate with local law enforcement and other local organizations serving at-risk youth, officials say.
“We know that by providing vulnerable at-risk youth with valuable work experience and career support, we can help protect them from the long-term impacts that the destructive cycle of gun violence can have on our communities,” says Barbara Guinn, commissioner of the Office of Temporary and Disability. “The Youth Employment Program will help us build on the success of the Summer Youth Employment Program by creating more year-round work opportunities for at-risk youth in parts of the state most directly impacted by gun violence and helping to support safer and stronger communities.”
A 2022 research paper published in the Journal of Policy and Analysis and Management examined the impact of the New York City Summer Youth Employment Program on youth arrests and convictions. The authors found a decrease in both arrests and convictions. “We estimate that the program directionally decreases future criminal justice contact for up to five years after the program; these effects are statistically significant for those aged 16 through 18 years old at the start of the program and who have been arrested before the program,” the study states.
Other experts also connect youth employment to a decline in crime. Everytown for Gun Safety, for example, helps cities and funders better understand the cost of implementing such programs. It has developed a tool to fit needs and budgets. Compared to the social and economic price of gun homicides, investing in an SYEP is a cost-effective way to help prevent violence in cities, Everytown says.
In addition to the Finger Lakes, the following regions received funds for the Youth Employment Program:
■ Capital Region: $2.51 million
■ Central New York: $3.05 million
■ Long Island: $7.94 million
■ Mid-Hudson: $10.52 million
■ Mohawk Valley: $1.33 million
■ North Country: $511, 728
■ Southern Tier: $2.09 million
■ Western New York: $6.87 million
Smriti Jacob is Rochester Beacon managing editor. The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. Submissions to the Letters page should be sent to [email protected].
Perhaps Duffy should have followed through on mayoral control.
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/rochester-n-y-mayor-wants-control-of-schools/2009/12
Josh, you’re right that the school board model is not the most effective means to run an educational system. Yet, people want a sense of democracy. How would one choose the volunteers? Who gets to decide who gets on the board? The mayor? By party affiliation? The Superintendent? It seems it might be trading one set of problems for another.
Nothing is easy. One thing is sure, the RCSD gets a failing grade, period. So if we are at the bottom when it comes to educational outcome, at the very least, discuss the options that are available. At least realize the failure and make an effort to change it for the better. Start answering the question you posed. Right now there is a lot of nothing going on and our kids are being sacrificed in the process. They end up on the streets to get their survival education on those streets. One thing is clear, the RCSB is not making a difference, Adam Urbanski and his union leadership is not making a deference, and the politicians just cower in the distance pointing fingers at the opposition party. Rochesters school system is the definition of educational failure. As was one’s said in a movie, “What we have here is a failure to communicate”. And as I recall going through Parris Island boot camp training, “get you head and a– wired together.” Right now the very few at the top of the educational leadership are just collecting a paycheck and living the high life.
That, youth summer jobs program, is more commonly known as a band-aid to the issue. A temporary solution to and age old problem. A solid K-12 education is the foundational answer to the issue!!! But we either don’t want to address the failing RCSD, are unable to get the job done, (RCSB and Adam Urbanski) or just not willing. Whatever the reason, rescue programs are good for the moment, but you’ll find yourself in the very same position next year. Those are more commonly referred to as rescue programs. You know why one needs to be rescued, right? Because of the educational failure. Why is something so basic, so simple to understand and resolve. You start with replacing a collective feckless paid school board with a volunteer board consisting of higher education professionals. But in Rochester, NY, the politics immersed in the education leadership is paramount. A few at the top “get theirs”, at the expense of our youth who have nothing to offer when it comes to a living wage career. BRING BACK A SOUND AND COMPLETE VOCATIONAL SCHOOL! I’m convinced it aint gonna happen. It’s never going to be addressed and it has nothing to do with underfunding and racism. It has everything to do with incompetence at the highest level of educational leadership and….and politicians who sluff off the educational challenge with the excuse that it’s not in their job description. Let the Police Department take care of the fallout. Shame on you Mayor and Joe Morelle. I remember Joe Morelle addressing poverty years ago. His quote,”We’re going to solve this poverty thing once and for all.” He is still sitting in his office working on that, I think. The truth hurts those “feelings” at the top and destroys our youth at the bottom. Semper Fi
Or to quote Ronald Reagan, “The best social program is a job.”