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Archived News Release--Caution: information may be out of date.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

ETA Press Release: $223 Million In Grants Will Give Young People The Opportunity To Succeed; 36 Communities To Benefit [02/19/2000]

For more information call: (202) 219-6871

In the largest investment of its kind, the U.S. Labor Department today awarded $223 million in grants to 36 communities to attack unemployment among out-of-school youth.

Today's grants are the first installment of a five-year, $1.375 billion effort to provide education and job training opportunities to young people who are most at-risk of permanent joblessness.

"We can tell our young people to be positive about the future because we are building the system to deliver on our promise," President Clinton said in announcing the grants. "We have the means to turn around tens of thousands of lives."

"The grants are the foundation of the Youth Opportunity (YO!) Movement to bring together entire communities to focus on helping these young people," Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman said. "I like to think of the YO! Movement as building a circle of support to help young people address the range of problems that have kept them from succeeding."

Communities were selected for the grants based on their plans to focus on the total person and provide a wide variety of support services, build community-wide partnerships with a special emphasis on employer partners, and provide long-term follow-up services.

The grant projects emphasize preparing and placing participants in private-sector jobs. They also include efforts to keep young people in school, increase their enrollment in college, and provide work experience in community-service projects.

Almost 11 million young people between the ages of 16 and 24 are high school drop-outs or graduates who are not getting further education. They are at-risk of permanent unemployment or under-employment. Only 42.5 percent of drop-outs participate in the labor force, compared to 65.1 percent of those with just a high school education and 80.4 percent of those with a college degree, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Many of these young people live where jobs have dried up or they lack the skills that are needed in today's economy. And the evidence is clear that high unemployment in poor neighborhoods leads to crime, drug problems and gang activity.

The Labor Department funded 11 small Youth Opportunity demonstration projects, which found that training programs should be linked to community support and guaranteed jobs, if possible, to be successful. The new grants are for programs that build on what was learned from the demonstration projects.

"The Youth Opportunity grants program will develop new workers who are badly needed in today's job market," Secretary Herman said. "We don't have a worker shortage in this country, we have a skills shortage. And we have young people who want a chance to develop skills and have the chance to succeed.

"When we engage the whole community, success is guaranteed."

Twenty-six of the grants are going to areas designated as Empowerment Zones or Enterprise Communities. Companies that invest in these communities get special tax credits.

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(The grantees announced today are identified on the attached list. Details on the Youth Opportunity grants are available on the Internet at two DOL websites: www.yomovement.org and www.doleta.gov ).

URBAN SITES SELECTED FOR AWARD (24)
NAME & SERVICE AREASTATEFUNDING

Birmingham / Jefferson County Job Trng. -----AL -----5,000,000
(City of Birmingham)

Pima County, Tucson-----AZ-----7,000,000
(Tucson, AZ)

City of Los Angeles----- CA----- 11,000,000
(Watts & Eastside of Empowerment Zone)

San Diego Workforce Partnership----- CA-----7,000,000

PIC of San Francisco----- CA-----7,000,000

City and County of Denver----- CO----- 5,000,000
(Denver's Enterprise Community)

Capitol Region Workforce Dev. BD----- CT----- 7,000,000
(City of Hartford)

D.C. Depart. of Employment Services -----DC -----8,000,000
(District of Columbia)

Hillsborough County, Tampa -----FL -----6,000,000
(Tampa FL)

Louisville and Jefferson Counties WIB -----KY -----7,000,000
(City of Louisville)

Brockton Area PIC -----MA----- 4,500,000
(City of Brockton)

Economic Development Industrial Corp., Boston -----MA -----6,000,000
(Boston's Enterprise Zone)

City of Detroit -----MI -----11,000,000

Office of Employment Devel., Baltimore -----MD -----11,000,000
(Baltimore City)

Full Employment Council, Inc., Kansas City -----MO -----4,000,000
Missouri SDA3, Kansas City)

Buffalo & Erie County PIC -----NY -----7,948,615
(Buffalo New York)

Work Systems, Inc., Portland -----OR -----5,000,000
(City of Portland)

City of Cleveland -----OH -----7,000,000

WIB of Philadelphia (City of Philadelphia) -----PA -----5,000,000

City of Memphis -----TN -----6,500,000
(Memphis & Shelby County)

Houston-Galveston Area Council -----TX -----11,000,000
Houston's Enhanced Enterprise Zone Harris County)

Alamo Workforce Development Board -----TX -----11,000,000
(San Antonia & Bexar Texas)

Seattle - King County PIC -----WA -----4,500,000

PIC of Milwaukee County (City of Milwaukee) -----WI -----6,000,000

RURAL SITES SELECTED FOR AWARD (6)

NAME & SERVICE AREA ----------STATEFUNDING

Southeastern Arkansas Economic Development -----AR -----4,998,216
(Chicot and Desha Counties)

Imperial County Office of E & T. -----CA -----5,000,000
(Brawley, Calipatria, Niland and Imperial County)

Georgia Department of Labor -----(Albany, GA) -----GA -----3,653,574

State of Hawaii (Maui County & Island of Molokai) -----HI----- 2,186,099

PIC / SDA-83 Incorporated, Monroe -----LA----- 5,000,000
(Enterprise Community covering East Carol and Madison)

Lumberton River Council (Robeson County) -----NC----- 5,000,000

NATIVE AMERICAN SITES SELECTED FOR AWARD (6)

NAME & SERVICE AREA -----STATE -----FUNDING

Cook Inlet Tribal Council (State of Alaska) -----AK ----- 8,000,000

Navajo Nation, Window Rock -----AZ ------ 10,300,000
(Navajo Nation Arizona, New Mexico & Utah)

California Indiana Manpower Consortium -----CA ----- 4,000,000
(Statewide CA, Douglas / Carson, Nevada)

Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Towaoc, CO -----CO ----- 2,000,000
(Towaoc, Montezuma, CO; Montezuma Creek, San Juan, UT)

Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa & Chippewa -----MI ----- 783,620
(Antrim, Benzie, Charlevoix, Leelanau, Manistee Counties)

Oglala Sioux Tribe, Pine Ridge -----SD ----- 4,000,000
(Pine Ridge Indian Reservation)

Archived News Release--Caution: information may be out of date.