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Resolutions Adopted at the
67th Annual Conference of Mayors
New Orleans, Louisiana
June 11-15, 1999 |
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JOBS, EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
YOUTH ACTIVITIES IN THE WORKFORCE INVESTMENT
ACT
WHEREAS, The U.S. Conference of Mayors has a strong commitment to the improvement
of job and educational prospects for disadvantaged youth, and believes that summer
employment opportunities are critical to achieving those goals; and
WHEREAS, The U. S. Conference of Mayors has a strong commitment to improving the
lives of out-of-school youth in high poverty areas and supported the creation and funding
of the Youth Opportunity Grants program which was proposed in President Clinton’s
1997 budget; and
WHEREAS, the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, which was signed on August 7,
1998 and supported by The U.S. Conference of Mayors, includes the opportunity for a summer
jobs program for disadvantaged youth as part of the workforce development system and
ensures funding of the $250 million Youth Opportunity Grants Program for out-of-school
youth in high poverty areas; and
WHEREAS, The Workforce Investment Act provides for a systematic approach to
serving youth that offers a broad range of coordinated services; and
WHEREAS, youth activities under the Workforce Investment Act, which are offered
as a menu of varied services that may be provided, in combination or alone, at different
times during a youth’s development, include summer employment opportunities; and
WHEREAS, the federal summer jobs program has provided a window to the world of
work for disadvantaged youth who would not otherwise have the opportunities to earn a
paycheck and learn real job skills; and
WHEREAS, summer jobs provides educational and enrichment opportunities leading
to academic improvement for millions of disadvantaged youth; and
WHEREAS, the summer jobs program helps youth develop life skills and values that
will prepare them for the challenges of adolescence and the responsibilities of adulthood;
and
WHEREAS, communities and cities benefit when young people are engaged
productively during the summer, providing much-needed services in hospitals, parks, day
care centers, and public and non-profit organizations; and
WHEREAS, participation in the summer jobs program can contribute to the
reduction in criminal and high-risk behavior for youth; and
WHEREAS, dollars spent on summer jobs are also an investment in the local
economy; and
WHEREAS, private sector support for this program is built on the foundation of a
public sector commitment consisting of a federal, state, and local partnership; and
WHEREAS, the private sector is unable to absorb the additional demand for summer
work without federal support due to fiscal limitations, especially in the hiring of 14 and
15 year olds; and
WHEREAS, there are 4.7 million youth ages 16-24 living in inner-city and rural
areas with poverty rates of 30 percent or higher and these youth face considerable
barriers to succeeding in life; and
WHEREAS, the employment rate for out-of-school youth in high-poverty areas is 46
percent; and
WHEREAS, in many cities the drop-out rate for African-American and Hispanic
youth is over 50 percent; and
WHEREAS, the proportion of young African-American high school dropouts who are
currently not employed exceeds 70 percent; and
WHEREAS, the pervasive joblessness of minority males contributes fundamentally
to various problems of inner cities--poverty, crime, welfare dependency, high proportion
of female-headed families, and drug abuse; and
WHEREAS, the Clinton Administration’s Youth Opportunity Grants program
begins to address some of these problems and complements the economic strategy of
Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities; and
WHEREAS, the key goal of these opportunity areas would be to boost the
employment rate of out-of-school youth from current levels of less than 50 percent to
considerably higher rates and thus have profound effects on all aspects of life in these
target areas; and
WHEREAS, this program would have a strong emphasis on mainstreaming youth into
the private sector, both in terms of immediate job placement and work-based learning
opportunities to increase long-term employment prospects; and
WHEREAS, this initiative would require responsible behavior on the part of the
youth as a condition of continued participation in employment programs--an emphasis on
personal accountability; and
WHEREAS, the Youth Opportunity Grants program would build strong links to the
school system and encourage the use of state and local educational funds to support
education and training services for youth who have dropped out-of-school,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that The U.S.Conference of Mayors urges Congress
to continue its long term commitment to a strong summer jobs program which is now only a
part of a year round youth program by enacting appropriations funding for year round youth
activities that would include at a minimum funding for the summer employment opportunities
and the current year round program equivalent to or greater than the FY 1999 funding
levels for these federal youth jobs programs; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The U.S. Conference of Mayors urges Congress to
help contribute to a solution to pervasive poverty and joblessness of inner-city youth and
young adults and ensure that funding for the out-of-school youth initiative exists beyond
FY 1999; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The U.S. Conference of Mayors urges Congress to
increase funding for all youth activities so that the workforce development system which
is evolving under the universally accessible design of the Workforce Investment Act, is
able to meet the infinite service demand and critical need of providing opportunities for
disadvantaged and all at-risk youth.
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