Allan Appel Photo
Robert Johnson, Jordan Majette. and Ronnie Huggins.
It may be cold and snowy and kids have their warm hoods up, but they’re already looking for summer jobs. For some the application begins at the bus stop.
Ronald Huggins from the city’s Youth at Work office was making rounds Friday afternoon distributing white, lime, and green cards as students waited for their buses to go home for the weekend.
“How old are you? You 16? You’re invited,” Huggins repeated as he went down the queue.
The notices informed kids between ages 14 and 21 that applications for the popular summer job and training programs are available now through April 5 either online or in person at City Hall.
Huggins’ rounds include going not only to all the city’s high schools and catching kids as they depart, but also circulating at the major bus stops. At the Chapel and Church Street central bus stop he got immediate interest from Hillhouse High students Jordan Majette and Robert Johnson.
Last summer Majette nabbed a coveted Youth at Work position as a counselor at LEAP. He told Huggins that he hopes to return there this summer applying separately to LEAP as well as through Youth at Work.
His friend Robert Johnson had never heard of Youth at Work. When Huggins told him that he might be able to be placed at a job where he could get not only about $1,000 for five weeks of part time summer work at the prevailing minimum wage, but also training in the field he’d like to enter, Johnson was interested.
“What kind of engineering?” Huggins asked.
When Johnson said something having to do with computers, Huggins said there were computer companies participating. He might be able to get some real skills training.
The 16-year-old jumped at the opportunity. “Where do I apply?” he said.
Huggins raised his hand and pointed across the Green to City Hall.
Youth at Work is jointly funded by the city and the state. Last year the state contributed $288,000 and the city $293,000. That made possible placing about 550 kids out of the 1251 who applied for jobs.
Program Manager Gwendolyn Busch said that because the city budget is still in formation and money available through the state is also still an unknown, it’s not possible to say how many opportunities will be available. She called the program parameters this year still a work in progress; she said she hopes to have at least as many kids as last year apply and be placed.
A lot of that will depend on the energy of the one-man marketing talents of Ronnie Huggins. “How old are you? Twenty-two? No.”
Then he went up to a young woman carrying a baby, and rested a card at the corner of the bassinet. “Summer jobs,” he said. She nodded thanks and boarded her bus.
He passed out a dozen more as he walked the length of Chapel from Temple to Church.
Huggins is currently a student at Southern Connecticut State University. A graduate of Hillhouse High, where he was known as a gregarious student leader, Huggins has helped organize block parties, dances, coat drives, and other events where kids could be safe and show adults their positive side.
During his Friday rounds Huggins appeared to recognize at least every third person waiting for the buses.
“We try to meet the students where they are,” he said.
In the case of Amistad high-schooler Dezhein Tucker, that was in Starbucks across from the bus stop. She too had had a Youth at Work job last summer. She performed office work at a property management company last summer, but didn’t seem too thrilled about the experience.
Like young Robert Johnson, she said she aspires to be an engineer. Huggins pressed a card on her and said, “We do our best to match” interests with work sites.
Those work sites can be public or private. Between May and June after the applicants have been contacted, prospective employers meet the prospective young employees at a job fair. Huggins said the kids are prepped in how to bring their resumes, what to wear, how to present themselves.
Those employers can request kids they meet and hit it off with, said Huggins. Those matches are then made off the top of the pool. The rest of the applicants are put into a lottery, chosen, and then matches are made.
Employers, like kids, have to apply. “They have to be legit,” said Huggins, that is be able to provide bonafides and offer training to the young summer employees.
There is also a school year program that is currently under way serving 80 students at 47 work locations.
In a press release, city spokesperson Elizabeth Benton wrote that the program is “open to New Haven residents and New Haven Public School students. The funds from the state help service the New Haven Public School students who live outside the cit. Less than nine percent of Youth at Work participants live outside the city.”
In addition to online application available here, you can call the Youth at Work office Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 203 – 946-7582.
Got mine out to cedar hill (low income blue collar community) at our block watch on Jan 5th. Hoping they took me seriously when I told them to get them in now! And to give them to kids on there streets.