Avoiding a lost generation

Georgetown University Professor Harry Holzer urges policymakers to support young workers.

I was heartened to read in the New York Times last week that factory owners have been slowly adding jobs since the beginning of the year. But before I was able to celebrate the good news, I read the bad news: The manufacturing sector has also been moving toward greater automation. That means that even though factories are hiring, they’re not replacing the low-skilled workers that they employed before the recession. The low-skilled jobs have been sent offshore.

Domestically, manufacturers are looking for workers with computer skills, those who can read blueprints and those who can do higher-level math. For young Detroiters, this creates a unique opportunity. If employers aren’t hiring back low-skilled workers, then there’s a vacuum that young, prepared workers may start to fill. That’s why we at City Connect Detroit feel that now is the time for employers to look seriously at providing summer employment opportunities for our young talent.

With black youth unemployment rates soaring past 50 and 60 percent, it’s easy to understand how young people  may begin to see the search for work as futile. But the truth is that, if they are willing to work hard in school, 18-24-year-olds may actually have more opportunity for entry-level jobs. With a bit of preparation and motivation, young workers can begin to leapfrog over older workers as employers look for workers with newer, more  technical skills.

Just last month, Georgetown University Professor Harry Holzer testified before the Congressional  Joint Economic Committee. The name of his lecture grabbed my attention: “Avoiding a Lost Generation: How to Minimize the Impact of the Great Recession on Young Workers.”  Here is how he is advising public policymakers to make sure that young workers are prepared for the economic recovery:

I also support extensions of summer youth employment programs, but much prefer year-round programs linked to schooling or other skill-building components attached. And publicly paid “transitional jobs” for hard-to-employ groups should be expanded as well.

But high-quality education and training options for youth, and especially those who are disadvantaged, should also be enhanced. These options should be designed to address longer-term problems, but should be ramped up now while unemployment for young people is so high. And, wherever possible, these efforts should include opportunities for them to gain some type of paid work experience, at least partly subsidized by government.

For young people in high school, this means dropout prevention efforts, high-quality career and technical education options, and subsidized internships and apprenticeships. Programs that create pathways for high school students into postsecondary programs should be further developed.

With or without federal support for these programs, City Connect is committed to making these pathways to productive adulthood possible. Our campaign to Grow Detroit’s Young Talent is a major public/private partnership to raise jobs and money to give urban youth a constructive work experience. We can’t afford to lose another generation to a lifetime of poverty and low productivity.

With your involvement, we won’t have to.

Dr. Geneva J. Williams, President and CEO, City Connect Detroit
It’s not too late! If you would like to employ a young person this summer, or donate funds so that a young person may be placed in a job, contact us at 313-879-1GRO (879-1476), or email Kathleen@cityconnectdetroit.org.

For more information on the Grow Detroit’s Young Talent Campaign, go to www.growdetroitsyoungtalent.org.

Detroit’s fight for youth jobs gains national attention

Detroit’s public-private partnership to get jobs for summer youth is gaining national recognition.  Click here for a story on Yahoo’s Associated Content.

Detroit City Council President shows city youth some love

On June 11, 2010, Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh met with an executive team at City Connect Detroit to discuss the progress of the Detroit Summer Youth Employment Program.

Upon hearing about the gulf between the number of young people eager to work and the federally supported jobs that may be available this summer, President Pugh asked a critical question: “What if more federal support doesn’t come?”

City Connect President and CEO Dr. Geneva J. Williams shares that concern. That’s why City Connect is now leading a private sector campaign to raise money for youth jobs. Enlisting the help of Compuware CEO Peter Karmanos, Jr., Skillman Foundation CEO Carol Goss and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, the 2010 Community Campaign for Youth Summer Jobs has raised more than $80,000 in business commitments, and $700,000 in individual and foundation dollars since May 24 to put our young people to work.

Upon hearing about the efforts, Council President Charles Pugh wished out loud that he could challenge a Detroit celebrity to a tennis match to help raise money and awareness about the need for work experiences for young people.

Now that’s what we call showing Detroit’s youth some love!

President Pugh’s support, along with the support of the campaign’s three champions, is critical to the success of the campaign to Grow Detroit’s Young Talent. There are more than 146,000 young people in Detroit between the ages of 14 and 24 who are potentially eligible to work this summer. However, at current funding levels, there is only enough money to employ about 5,000 youth.

Nationally, a bill has been passed by the House and is pending before the Senate to allocate $1 billion to employ an estimated 333,000 at-risk youth this summer. While the bill languishes, the summer is upon us.

So far, there are no takers on the Council President’s challenge. But it is certainly our hope that for Detroit’s future, the support of Pugh and others like him will help make the program  a grand slam.

The Campain to Grow Detroit’s Young Talent Gains Momentum

On Saturday, Crain’s Detroit Business ran a story about the campaign to raise money and jobs for the Detroit Youth Summer Employment Program.  We are thrilled to have so many people in the region embracing this important effort.

Click here to read the story.

Youth Development is Detroit’s Business

Compuware CEO Peter Karmanos, Skillman Foundation CEO Carol Goss and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing are urging the business community to offer work experiences for Detroit youth.

Last week was an amazing one for the City of Detroit and for us at City Connect. Under the radar, a group of about 60 business leaders gathered for a “Breakfast of Champions” at the Compuware Headquarters downtown to make a commitment to youth summer employment. They had been personally invited by Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, Skillman Foundation CEO Carol Goss and Compuware CEO Peter Karmanos, Jr. to pledge to provide valuable work experiences for Detroit’s talented youth.   

It amazed me that in these tough economic times, so many people stepped up to the plate–like James Giordano, CEO of CareTech Solutions. “I get so many requests each year to support so many initiatives,” he said, “But when I got this one, I knew I had to be there.”   

In fact, we got several companies pledge to either hire young people between the ages of 14 and 24, or to donate funds to help City Connect place a young person at a public or nonprofit agency this summer. Why would they pledge to do so when so many adults are desperately seeking employment? Simple—because we all remember the first time someone looked us up and down and decided to take a risk. And we remember how our first jobs –from a paper route, to babysitting, to being someone’s assistant—were such character-shaping experiences for us.   

That was true for Mayor Bing, who described how his paper route at age 9 taught him how to be on time and how to do an excellent job, no matter the task. Carol Goss described her first real job as a teaching assistant for a Head Start program at age 17. “The teachers there encouraged me to go forward in life,” she said. “They told me I could do whatever I wanted to do.”   

And for Peter Karmanos, a self-described “troubled youth,” life took an unexpected shift when a man he met in the lobby of an office building hired him on the spot to assist in his new computer department. “That’s how my company began,” Karmanos told the business leaders gathered at the breakfast. “Important things can happen when you give kids a chance to find out who they are.”   

Amen to that. We know that one way to stem chronic unemployment is to expose young people to the business environment and career options at an early age. And, according to our research of the 7,000 youths who participated in last year’s Summer Youth Employment Program, more than one-third of the young people contributed their earnings to meet household expenses. Youth summer jobs are a win-win, for corporations, for young people, for their families and for Detroit.   

If you would like to donate to the 2010 Community Campaign for Youth Summer Jobs, call our hotline at 313-879-1476.