“I’ve been looking and looking. And my friends are looking for jobs, too,” she said. But Stephens, who will be a senior at Yelm Extension School, signed up for the summer youth employment program run by Community Youth Services in June, and she has worked as part of the animal care staff at Yelm Veterinary Hospital for the past few weeks.
For a first job, Stephens said it fits right in with her interests in animals, and she never gets bored, even if she’s cleaning kennels or doing the laundry.
“I’m in there right when they’re doing surgery, checking the animal’s breathing or its heart rate,” she said.
Stephens is one of about 190 people between the ages of 14 and 24 that Community Youth Services has placed with nearly 80 employers throughout Thurston County. In Grays Harbor, Pacific, Mason and Lewis counties, Educational Service District 113 runs a similar program, which employs about 400 young people.
Those five counties are splitting $1.15 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which will pay mainly for the summer youth employment programs run by Community Youth Services and Educational Service District 113.
Throughout Washington, local counties received about $19.9 million for youth employment programs from the federal recovery money, and at least 3,300 young people have been employed through programs funded with federal stimulus money, according to the Washington State Employment Security Department.
Some of the money will also go toward other programs aimed at helping young people find work.
The young people are employed in entry-level part- and full-time jobs for the summer youth employment program and are mostly paid Washington’s minimum wage of $8.55 an hour.
For many of the young people, it’s one of their first real work experiences.
“Young people, when they have money and they get a paycheck, they spend it. It’s not to say that some don’t save; it’s just that they tend to be consumers,” said Mike Kennedy, executive director of Pacific Mountain Workforce Development Council. “The true outcome we were looking for, obviously, was to engage young people in the workplace and get them a paycheck. It gains for young people the experience of work: being able to tell someone on a resumé, hey I worked for six weeks.”
The programs are similar to a summer youth employment program that operated for decades before it was discontinued in 1999, Kennedy said.
The programs are targeted at young people from low-income families, and the money is meant to help them strengthen their work skills or help with barriers, such as a lack of a driver’s license, that might prevent a young person from getting a job, he said.
At Community Youth Services, the young people took classes at their schools before interviewing with employers for the entry level positions.
“Most of them have no actual employment history at all. It’s really difficult to get that basic level experience,” said Katherine Mahoney, Career TREK Recruiter with CYS.
In Thurston County, about 80 businesses, nonprofits and public agencies have taken in the young employees, who are paid minimum wage through the federal program dollars.
A few of the employers have hired the young employees for more hours, she said.
While Community Youth Services is no longer hiring for the summer employment program, Educational Service District 113 still is taking application for the summer program and for its year-round employment program for youth, said Lee Bucsko, youth programs director at the ESD.
Cierra Thomas, 19, who will be a senior at Black Hills High School, is spending her summer preparing parts and washing cars in the body shop of Terry’s Automotive Group.
Thomas said even though the job is for 20 hours a week and pays minimum wage, she is gaining experience in a career she is interested in pursuing. She said that many of her friends are still looking for a job.
“It’s just really hard because of the economy right now, and a lot of places aren’t hiring,” she said. “A lot of my friends are minors, and they are having a heck of a time trying to find a job.”
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