Last month Mayor Andre Dickens promised to employ scores of young people in his Summer Youth Employment Program.
By Allison Joyner
As the national unemployment rate maintains its position at 3.6 percent, the city of Atlanta’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) hopes to reach an ambitious benchmark from years past.
Dickens announced this new program in his guest column last month in SaportaReport, which explained the concept behind creating this initiative. City departments like Fire and Rescue, the Department of Corrections, Parks and Recreation and the Office of Film and Entertainment will expose young folks to different aspects of the day-to-day operations of running Georgia’s capital city. Young people ages 14 to -24 can enroll in the program, which will provide internships, apprenticeships, career exploration and earn-to-learn opportunities.
His goal of securing 3,000 young adults with employment during summer break aims to create added education that was missing in previous programs.
“The program serves a dual purpose of youth development to mitigate the learning loss and lack of opportunities due to the pandemic as well as a public safety measure to ensure our young people have safe activities for the summer,” said Janean Lewis, Senior Director for the Mayor’s Division of Youth Engagement.
She added that Dickens is motivated after the minimal impact of participation in past summer job programs. “Last year, we simply posted opportunities and left it at that,” said Lewis.
She met with Dickens during the first ten days of his administration and he asked her how the program tracked success and supported the young people employed by …
Atlanta’s summer jobs program nearing goal of employing 3,000 young people – SaportaReport
