By Kristofer Ríos
Last summer Mahmoud Farraj worked his first job as an assistant engineer at Lutheran Medical Center through the Summer Youth Employment Program. The 15-year-old, who lives in a small Sunset Park apartment with his parents and three siblings, enjoyed working because he had money to buy the latest video games without depending on his parents. Farraj’s family is working class—his mother manages a day-care center and his father works in a restaurant—and knows he can’t always ask them for spending money.
But more than the money, Farraj’s favorite part of last summer was opening machines and fixing them. The rising junior at the High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn says that his school doesn’t have engineering courses. For Farraj, who discovered a passion for engineering after he repaired his own video-game console, working at the medical center was also his first real experience with engineering. His proudest moment came when he fixed a broken refrigerator saving the medical center staff from spoiled food and summer heat.
This June Farraj applied to the summer program again hoping to return to the medical center. So when Farraj was notified that his application to the annual Summer Youth Employment Program was not selected in this summer’s lottery, he couldn’t help but be disappointed. “I wish I had the job this year,” explained Farraj. “I would make engineering my passion, but since I didn’t get the job I can’t figure that out.”
Farraj’s experience reflects how the shrinking city budget is doubly depriving students; not only are young people like him left without opportunities for productive summers and career development, but they are also denied much-needed income during a time when families are financially strapped.
Last year’s budget for the Summer Youth Employment Programs was $67.5 million providing 52,000 youth employment positions, with 40 percent of those jobs supporting summer camps and day-care centers, according to the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development. This summer, the total budget for the program is $51 million, funding 35,000 positions – a drop of about one-fourth in dollars and one-third in jobs.
As a result, about 75 percent of the 143,000 students who applied to the city-wide summer program this year were not selected. Without the summer employment program students have to navigate a difficult job market. In New York City, youth unemployment is at 25.9 percent for 16 to 19 year olds, according to the most recent figures from the New York office of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Farraj knows how difficult it is to find a job without the support of the employment program. His summer break is half over and he still hasn’t found work. “I think it’s mainly because of my age,” Farraj explained. “I think they think I’m too young, they think I’m not responsible or dependable.”
For students like Farraj, who lives in a neighborhood where 28 percent of residents’ incomes are below the poverty line, the summer employment program helps sustain families’ economic health during difficult times. Farraj worries that being unemployed this summer will cause additional financial burden on his family. While the money he earned in the program last summer wasn’t much, a total of $1100 for seven weeks of work, it was enough for him to buy the things he wanted and still help his family. “When I worked last year, I helped my Mom pay the bills and stuff,” said Farraj. “But I can’t really do that this year.”
The significant reduction in youth positions this summer concerns Julie Stein-Brockway, co-director of Center for Family Life, a social-service organization based in Sunset Park that manages the Summer Youth Employment Program for 110 sites in the neighborhood. The organization cut its youth employment positions from 1,300 to 800 this summer because of the overall reduction to the program citywide.
Stein-Brockway worries about how the cuts will impact teenagers and the communities in which they live. She explained that the Summer Youth Employment Program provides an important opportunity for students to gain valuable job experience. Often times students that participate in the program come from families that can’t afford for their teens to take an unpaid internships or sit at home without work. “When students don’t get these life experiences, they are losing ground in terms of being marketable in the workforce,” said Stein-Brockway. “This is a stepping stone to college.”
Students in Sunset Park need the extra support in career opportunities. According to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s 2006 Community Health Profile, only 13 percent of Sunset Park residents have completed college.
Farraj knows that having a consistent work history is important for future opportunities. He is considering several city universities and is concerned that having a gap in his resume will make him less competitive when he begins applying to colleges in a year. “When I got my job last year, I thought it looked real good on my resume,” he recalled, “ but since I didn’t get accepted, it looks worse, like say someone was accepted this year, they got accepted two years in a row, so that looks better than me.”
Cathleen Collins, a spokesperson for the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development, explained that when difficult funding decisions are made, the department considers the diversity, poverty, and concentration of single-parent households in the communities that it distributes resources to before making reductions, “In times of budget cuts, we strive to maintain services in those neighborhoods that need them the most,” said Collins.
Stein-Brockway understands that these are difficult times, but the cuts to the summer employment program are still frustrating. She remembers what the neighborhood was like before the youth employment program was available and knows how important the program is to low-income neighborhoods like Sunset Park. “It puts us back. We’ve been moving gradually to help increase the number of youth with a college trajectory,” said Stein-Brockway. “Cuts erode the connections of communities that desperately need it.”
With little prospect of getting hired during what’s left of this summer, Farraj is already thinking of next summer’s plan. “I’m going to apply as soon as I can to the summer youth employment program,” he said. “But I’m not just going to do that, I’m going to look for jobs like a month before the summer. Maybe I’ll find something better than the summer youth employment program”
And while this summer was difficult for Farraj, he said he’ll be ok. “I have another passion,” he explained. “It’s being an entrepreneur.” Farraj has used his time this summer dreaming up plans for a future business. The ambitious teenager wants to share his love of video games and open a gamer’s lounge where teenagers can hang out. “A lounge that people can chill around,” said Farraj, “I find it a cool idea to have that kinda of thing.”
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