Taveras: Summer jobs program employs 650 Providence youth

MAYOR ANGEL TAVERAS touted the success of the city's summer jobs program, which has employed 650 youth in 2013. / PBN FILE PHTO/FRANK MULLIN
MAYOR ANGEL TAVERAS touted the success of the city's summer jobs program, which has employed 650 youth in 2013. / PBN FILE PHTO/FRANK MULLIN

PROVIDENCE – Providence’s summer jobs program has helped 650 city youth find employment this summer, the office of Mayor Angel Taveras announced Wednesday.

“It is important for teenagers to stay actively engaged and build on their job skills and over the summer,” Mayor Taveras said in a Wednesday visit to the South Side Clubhouse of the Boys & Girls Club.

The summer jobs program is administered by Workforce Solutions of Providence/Cranston and the Providence Department of Parks & Recreation, and funded by the the city, the Governor’s Workforce Board Job Development Fund and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families through the Department of Human Services.
The program includes various funding streams, Liz White, deputy director of communications and media relations for the city, said in an email Thursday.
“For jobs through Workforce Solutions of Providence/Cranston, the City of Providence receives $480,307.71 from the Governor’s Workforce Board Jobs Development Fund and $233,067.27 in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funding that comes through the Department of Human Services,” White wrote.

She also noted that for fiscal year 2013, the city estimates that it will spend approximately $325,000 on summer jobs programming.

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White described the process of reaching city youth as “a mix of recruitment by program operators through their own networks and by promoting the summer jobs program in youth centers” for jobs through Workforce Solutions of Providence/Cranston. The jobs are for youth ages 14 through 24.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Providence employs 133 youth workers at the South Side Clubhouse and the Fox Point Clubhouse combined.

Teenagers at those locations support staff in “delivering structured programs, activities and athletics as part of the Boys & Girls Clubs’ summer camp,” according to a release.

More than 200 youth aged 14 and older are working for the Providence Department of Parks and Recreation this summer as seasonal employees. The city funds the seasonal Parks and Recreation employees according to White.
Providence/Cranston youth are employed this summer at many local organizations, including:
• AS220: 52 youth employees
• Boys & Girls Clubs of Providence: 85, with additional positions funded through Governor’s Workforce Board and Bank of America, for a total of 133
• Comprehensive Community Action: 80
• Institute for the Study and Practice of Non-Violence: 24
• Goodwill Industries of Rhode Island: 43
• The MET School: 60
• New England Laborers’ Academy/Cranston Public Schools: 22
• Rhode Island Hospital/Lifespan: 61
• Rhode Island Parent Information Network: 10
• Tri-Town Community Action: 50
• Young Voices: 20

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