All unintentional hilarity aside, I had to wonder why there needs to be not only a program manager (WSI) but TWELVE contracted "providers" to recruit 60 kids for 4-month long, low-skill, summer jobs.

What percentage of these Federal Recovery Act Stimulus dollars (how much are we talking here, anyway?) is going to the kids, and what percentage to all these many middlemen?

Maybe I don't understand the process, but it seems a bit excessive to me.

I wish there were more details, but I'm also wondering about the "up to 180 hours" part. Is that per month, per the entire season, or what? How much will they be paying these kids, really?

Finally, and it's a bit nit picky, but nonetheless: Scam says "to take advantage" (LOL) of these employees between "May and September." I highly doubt anyone, let alone an at-risk youth, will be able to wade through the city's - and all its many "partners'" - bureaucracy in these last few remaining days of May.

That does sound like an awful lot of overhead.

Here's the full e-mail message:

Hello All,

I encourage every bureau to take advantage of an excellent opportunity available to have Youth Corps Interns as well as WSI funded youth Summerwork employees between May and September of this year. Your bureau can benefit from the youths' employment as well as supporting and helping youth in our community. The youth will be paid through Federal Recovery Act Stimulus dollars for up to 180 hours; the program manager is Work Systems Inc. and one of the twelve providers the City can work with to hire employees is IRCO. Tiffani Penson, of BDS and the Mayor's Office can help you link up to this excellent program.

For 5 years, the City of Portland has supported a Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) to provide job skills training and work experience to under-represented youth. This year Multnomah County Chair Ted Wheeler and I have initiated a community-wide effort to cut the drop-out rate by half in four years. One of the initial strategies to come from this work is the Portland Multnomah Youth Corps. The Youth Corps is a four-year sequence of summer opportunities providing youth identified at higher risk of dropping out, career site and college campus visits, credit recovery, and work experiences.

The research around this issue strongly indicates that strategies to help recover credits and connect youth to work, school and community are highly effective for keeping students in school and pursuing college or a trade. This summer the former SYEP program will be modified as a pilot program to align with the goals of Youth Corps, and will incorporate academic credit recovery, job-skills training and six week of a paid internship in a City bureau. If you haven't signed up for a Youth Corps Intern already, please contact Tiffani Penson soon.

The City will continue to contract with Immigrant and Refugee Community Organizations (IRCO) to manage the newly restructured Youth Corps Program. IRCO will be responsible for recruitment, screening and selection of youth to participate in the program. IRCO will also provide work-skills training and coordinating work-experience placements in the City as well as managing payroll, insurance and performance issues for the participating youth. They will work in coordination with Tiffani Penson, of BDS, to handle personnel issues related to the program.

In addition to the 25 Youth Corp interns, the Federal Recovery Act Stimulus has allowed for a Workforce Investment Act program expansion during Summer 2009. This will be managed by Work Systems Inc and the recruitment will be contracted through 12 providers; IRCO being one of the twelve. The City has agreed to take 35 positions for this program for the summer. These youth will range from ages 16-24 years old and must meet the Federal low income and/or "At-Risk" guidelines. These youth can begin work anywhere between May 1st - September 30, 2009 and can work a total of 180 hours.

My office has assigned Program Manager Jane Ames and Bureau Support Manager Tiffani Penson to build the program internally, provide support and assistance to the participating bureaus and to act as a liaison between bureaus, IRCO and youth. Once we have the positions filled, Tiffani will send out clear direction regarding the next steps, training and information.

Currently, the Youth Corps slots have been accounted for and we have 22 Work Systems Inc positions left to fill.

I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to make a difference in a youth's life and to bring your bureau an exciting experience. I would like to have the final numbers by May 22nd. Please contact Tiffani Penson at (503) 823-1109 for any questions. Thank you and we look forward to your participation.

Sam

Sam Adams, Mayor
City of Portland
1221 SW Fourth Avenue, Suite 340
Portland, OR 97204
(503) 823-4120
samadams@ci.portland.or.us

35 Kiddie Korps Kadets? That sounds curiously close the 39 "jobs" in Poodle Poop Park ...

There is only one way to describe universal reaction to post.
Nausea.