Long Beach/Los Angeles Hold Youth Skills Summit
By Joan Crigger
December 13, 2004
The cities of Long Beach and Los Angeles held an innovative Youth Skills Summit November 18 at the Watts Labor Community Action Committee in Los Angeles cosponsored by The United States Conference of Mayors. The summit was the first of its kind to focus primarily on youth. Over 150 people representing all facets of the communities attended the Summit.
David Crippens, Chair of the Los Angeles Workforce Investment Board Youth Council, opened the summit. Crippens stated that education and employment among young adults must be a vital part of workforce development strategies. He added that it is important to understand the extent to which young adults participate in school and work and identify those young adults who fail to acquire formal education or to access employment. When young adults work or go to school benefits extend beyond their personal lives to the economy and society at large.
Darick J. Simpson, Chair of the Greater Long Beach Workforce Development Board Youth Council, followed Crippens and indicated that examining the educational and employment activities of young adult residents of Long Beach and Los Angeles was vital to improving the lives of both the young people involved and to improving the economy of both cities.
Renata Simril, Deputy Mayor for the city of Los Angeles, spoke about Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn's determination to improve opportunities for young people in the city. Joan Crigger, Assistant Executive Director for the Conference of Mayors, related to the audience the long term commitment of the Conference to bettering the lives of youth living in cities.
Ray Worden, Workforce Development Bureau Manager for the city of Long Beach represented Long Beach Mayor Beverly O'Neill.
Paul Harrington, Ph.D., Associate Director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, presented "One Out of Five," a report on out of school and out of work youth in Los Angeles and Long Beach. The study was commissioned by the Workforce Investments Boards of the cities of Los Angeles and Long Beach in partnership with the Conference of Mayors. Harrington was the principal researcher of the study along with Neeta Fogg, Ph.D., the senior economist at the Center. The report found that:
One out of five 16 to 24 year olds in Los Angeles is out of work. In the spring of 2000, 93,013 young adult residents of Los Angeles representing 19.8 percent of the city's total young adult population were out of school and jobless. In 2000, there were 4.6 million disconnected youth in the nation, 638,000 in California and 11,500 in Long Beach. Disconnected youth accounted for 14.3 percent of all young adults in the nation, 15.9 percent in California, and 19.4 percent in Long Beach.
Among young college graduates, the earnings of bachelor's degree holders were 66 percent higher than that of high school graduates — up from 15 percent in the early 70s.
An extensive question and answer session followed Harrington's presentation.
Next on the agenda was a panel discussion from the youth perspective by young people who have been enrolled in local youth development programs. Speaking were: Marquez Gonzalez, Julie Robles, both of Los Angeles, and Mallie Chheang of Long Beach. Moderating the panel was Lisa Salazar of Los Angeles Community Development Department.
Ray Worden moderated a panel of business representatives from both Long Beach and Los Angeles discussing the importance to the Los Angeles regional economy of being able to hire young people who have both educational attainment and a good work attitude. The panelists were: Jeff Kaltenbach, Manager of Stables; Maria Valdovinos, Human Resources Manager, Event Imaging Solutions, Inc.; and David Rattray, Vice President of Education and Workforce Development for the L.A. Chamber of Commerce.
The day ended with a comprehensive question and answer session which was followed by a luncheon and networking opportunity. Both the Long Beach and Los Angeles Workforce Boards plan to continue to focus on issues facing youth adults by holding strategic planning events in the spring.
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