Testimony: Establishing a universal youth employment program
Testimony by Irene Lew, CSS Policy Analyst
Hearing on Int 1474 before the NYC Council Committee on Youth Services
My name is Irene Lew and I am a policy analyst at the Community Service Society of New York, a nonprofit organization that works to advance the upward mobility of low-income New Yorkers. In 2016 we published a report recommending that the City improve upon the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) by creating a universal program that would guarantee a paid summer internship to every high school student who wanted one, and we are pleased that there is now a plan to make this happen. We believe that the New York City Council should support this legislation to establish a universal youth employment program. In addition to guaranteeing a summer job for every youth who wanted one, the proposed legislation would go one step further by also providing an option for a part-time school year job.
SYEP’s baseline funding has increased since we began our work in 2015, enabling better planning and expansion of school-based models tied to academics. Since 2015, SYEP has expanded from about 40,000 placements to 75,000 this past summer, of which nearly 6,000 are school based, a number that will grow to 20,000 by 2021. While we applaud the recent significant expansion and improvements to SYEP, there simply are not enough slots in SYEP to meet demand. This past year, approximately 125,000 students in New York City applied for just 75,000 SYEP slots, meaning that nearly 50,000 applicants were turned away. The proposed legislation would address the inability of SYEP to meet demand by creating a universal program that would ensure all students who want to enroll in this program can do so. Per the recommendation from our 2016 report, we were also pleased to see that the bill language amended SYEP’s current age range of 14 to 24 to a more targeted range of 14 to 21, as it is widely believed that SYEP is not the appropriate program option for older youth aged 22 to 24.
While we support the proposed legislation, we do have one major concern about the bill that we hope the Council will address in subsequent revisions. The current legislation calls for the City to cultivate relationships with public and private sector employers offering youth employment opportunities but does not include a school-based partnership option. This omission was a key flaw of the existing SYEP program that CSS pointed out and was addressed on a more limited basis this past year. This past year, for the first time in SYEP’s 40-year history, there was a school-based option called CareerReady SYEP that connected SYEP jobs to selected high schools that work with providers to build programs aligned with the school’s focus and student interests. Prior to this past year, CBOs only had the option of contracting directly with the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) for SYEP, with little connection to schools nor to each young person’s year-round academic experience. Building off of this improvement to SYEP, we recommend that the City Council include language in the bill that would provide a school-based partnership option for the new program because this would lead to higher-quality placements that are better connected to each participant’s school interests, activities and skills.
Research shows that summer employment programs reduce criminal justice involvement and improves a young person’s chances of long-term career success. They also offer an opportunity to learn responsibility and gain valuable skills for future success in the workplace, not to mention making connections with people who may be helpful to them as they pursue their education and career goals. Employment during high school can raise the chances of attending college, as students become more familiar with why they should attend college and are likely to make better choices about the types of degree programs that will help them start good careers. While a universal youth employment program would benefit all New York City youth, they would be especially helpful for teens of color from low-income families in high-poverty neighborhoods who experience the greatest difficulties in finding employment and lack the social network to land jobs. The program would not only provide these young people with valuable work experience but would also put money into their pockets to help with family expenses. Furthermore, polling that CSS conducted in the summer of 2016 found that an overwhelming majority—87 percent—of New Yorkers across incomes support the idea of universal jobs for New York City high school students.
Given the net benefits of a summer youth employment program and the strong support for this proposal among New Yorkers, we urge the City Council to support the creation of a universal youth employment program in New York City. We’ve made significant progress in advancing early education access through universal pre-k. Now the City should invest in similar efforts to help teens navigate the transition to adulthood and improve their chances of succeeding in the labor market.