With gun violence across New York deemed a public health crisis, the state is seeking to replace weapons with a jobs initiative aimed at vulnerable young adults.
Funding in the amount of $16 million would be used for programs in the state”™s cities outside of New York City that have been struggling with an increase in shootings.
Young people from ages 18 to 24 who are considered as most at-risk for being impacted by gun violence can seek job training, job placement and career-planning resources. The state determined that 3,200 youth could be served statewide.
The program will also see that individuals are referred to other support services for housing and legal issues if necessary.
“We know that simply telling kids to put the gun down doesn”™t work ”” we have to give them an alternative,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. “This new funding for job training and stable, good-paying career placement opportunities for our most vulnerable young people across New York state, does just that. It”™s an investment in our economy, in our recovery and in our security. And it”™s a beacon of hope for a generation that too often feels bereft of it.”
The July 21 announcement came two weeks after the governor declared a gun-violence disaster emergency in New York and announced the creation of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention. The announcement also included a $138.7 million investment strategy. With the $16 million workforce development program, that investment is being increased to $154.7 million.
The state Department of Labor will partner with local workforce development boards in each municipality.
“Our local workforce development boards are proven partners with an extensive history of helping young people improve their lives through job training and placement,” Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon said. “Governor Cuomo is leading this charge through innovative short-term programs that dovetail to proven long-term solutions that will last for generations.”
To be eligible, the young people must be unemployed, underemployed and out of school and living in the cities impacted by gun violence specified by the program. They can be referred by community partners, municipalities and nonprofit agencies.
The initiative will reach communities across the state, including several in the upper and lower Hudson Valley, where 1,325 jobs for at-risk youth will be created.
In Westchester, Mount Vernon and Yonkers are to receive $1.05 million and $1.1 million for 210 and 220 youth to be served, respectively.
Several Hudson Valley municipalities outside of Westchester are also recipients:
Ӣ Spring Valley is to receive $750,000;
Ӣ Newburgh will receive $600,000;
Ӣ Poughkeepsie will receive $350,000;
Ӣ Middletown will receive $325,000; and
Ӣ Kingston will receive $300,000.
A combined total of 465 young people will be served in the five municipalities.
In Mount Vernon, Yonkers and Spring Valley, the state will provide funding for 253 summer jobs for those ages 15 to 24, along with services to connect 580 at-risk youth to permanent, good-paying jobs.
According to Sean McGrail, executive director of the Yonkers Office of Workforce Development, the Yonkers Workforce Development Board is committed to the initiative, administering the funds and monitoring the performance of the program.
“The impact will be twofold,” McGrail said. “First for those youth participants receiving services, and secondly for the employers receiving well-trained employees. Employers not only receive well-trained candidates for hire, they can receive financial hiring incentives in the form of tax credits, on-the-job training funds and/or apprenticeships.”
Mount Vernon already administers a youth employment program, through the city”™s Youth Bureau. Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard said the funding will go toward strengthening this program even further.
“Some of the employment training programs that we have include OSHA safety management, fire safety, scaffolding, flagging, medical industries, cooking classes, ServSafe certifications and security,” Patterson-Howard said.
“We offer multiple tracks of construction trades. We offer multiple tracks of employment certifications and conjunctions with our partners currently and so we will definitely continue to work with them to administer this funding, in addition, because we want to ensure that we”™re reaching the kids who are most at risk.”
According to Patterson-Howard, several government agencies, including the Office of Temporary Disability Assistance, the Division of Criminal Justice Services, the state Department of Labor, the Office of Children and Family Services and the Office of Addiction Services and Supports and Mental Health will offer assistance in the program.
She noted that her city had been facing lower levels of gun violence since its most recent high in 2016 and 2017, but when the pandemic hit, a relapse occurred. She attributes that spike partially to the availability of guns and the increase in people carrying guns. The state funding, she said, could provide some hope for building up personal assets as an alternative to gun violence.
“We want to make special outreach to the target neighborhoods and to the target young people who are disconnected because it”™s those who don”™t have positive interactions and some of these opportunities and relationships who are the ones who are most at risk for shooting or being shot and involving themselves in negative street or community activity,” Patterson-Howard said.
“And so we want to use this to target them. That”™s what the money is really intended for, is to target those high-risk young people, young adults who need some structure, some attention, some support and some direction.”
Aside from general job placement and summer employment, she noted that the goal for the Mount Vernon iteration of the program is to create long-term solutions for individuals and to have a support system in place for those who need it.
“We don”™t want to just put them to work,” she said. “We also want to provide them with the support of a job coach, because it”™s not just giving a person a job, but it”™s supporting them and onboarding into these different companies, getting used to the different cultures of the organizations for which they”™ll work, making sure of timeliness, all of the life skills and new job skills that they might need to be successful, that they may not have been exposed to because for some people, this might be their first job.
“And so we want to make sure that we”™re providing more than just a job. We want to make sure we”™re providing the technical skills that they will need to get a job, and then the soft skills that they will need to be successful in that job, and then that workplace environment.”
