It’s that time of year. Some people are buying mulch by the truckload, tending to their landscaping. Others are testing out the new putter, trying to shave some strokes off their golf game.
Henry Shelton is doing neither.
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Shelton is a political activist and he is on a crusade of sorts. Same as last year at this time. He’s looking to secure summer jobs for teen-agers. It’s not an easy task. But Shelton isn’t about easy. He is a voice for the downtrodden. He is used to doors being closed, telephone calls going unanswered and meetings being canceled.
But Shelton is passionate about this issue and he doesn’t tire easily. So he’s going to fight for kids. Someone’s got to do it.
Shelton runs the George A. Wiley Center in Pawtucket. The Wiley Center is one of those social service agencies that help out people in need. Among the many programs it runs is the Campaign to Eliminate Childhood Poverty.
It is a crusade that often brings Shelton to the State House, to monthly meetings of the state Human Resources Investment Council (HRIC), to Pawtucket City Hall and to businesses throughout the area. He will go anywhere where he figures he can help to create summer jobs for kids.
Unfortunately, it has become an annual crusade. With each year, the need seems to grow just a bit greater. More kids. Fewer jobs. The economy doesn’t help. Shelton figures there are more than 500 children in the Blackstone Valley area who need a summer job. And if that is in fact the case, he wonders what the numbers are in Providence.
For some reason, he suggests, the state simply doesn’t place a priority on the issue. But it should, says Shelton, because teen-agers find themselves at a critical crossroads in their lives. It’s a time when they get tempted to give up.
“This is the age group that so often contemplates dropping out of school,” says Shelton. “This is about education. There is a greater chance that a child working in the summer is going to go back to school.”
Shelton doesn’t get this from a survey in a magazine or from a television report he has watched. He knows these things firsthand. He knows the kids. He talks to them. He talks to their parents. They are the neighborhood children who stream into the Wiley Center on East Avenue on any given day. They know they will find someone there who is going to try and help. For years, Shelton has worked to connect the kids to local businesses and arranged meetings with the mayor.
But it’s an uphill battle. Every summer.
Last year Pawtucket Mayor James Doyle did what he could. He met with Shelton and the kids. He found room in his city budget for about 32 summer jobs. He arranged a job fair. More than 100 kids showed up. But fewer than 10 companies were on hand for them to meet.
There’s no easy solution. Some businesses are reluctant to hire teen-agers. There are lots of rules and regulations to follow. Shelton has put together an easy-to-read description of the federal mandates that relate to teen-age workers.
Complicating the situation is the fact that most companies are cutting back anyway – doing whatever necessary to ride out what has become a stubborn recession.
So Shelton keeps pushing. He keeps making calls. He keeps attending meetings. It’s not quite June, so Shelton remains optimistic. He is once again reaching out to Mayor Doyle. He has been in touch with the governor’s office. They’ve asked him to provide some additional information. The next meeting of the HRIC is on his calendar.
Shelton will find some help. But it’s not likely to be enough. Five-hundred is a lot of summer jobs. And Shelton knows that he is also fighting something that may be bigger than a recession. It’s called apathy. And according to Shelton, when it comes to kids and poverty, it’s easy to find.
He wonders if people really get it, sometimes. The children who come into his center aren’t looking to make a few bucks to buy a CD or video game. Some of them need to help the utilities at home, or some other basic necessity.
“Some of these kids are responsible for buying their own clothes,” says Shelton.
Shelton believes that for some reason, poor people just aren’t a priority in this state and that there is no major concern out there for low-income kids.
“You don’t see anyone championing the cause,” says Shelton.
So Shelton will keep up the crusade. He’ll pester. He’ll plead. He’ll annoy some people.
And some kids will have jobs this summer because of him.
