Grant Summary
$100,000 over 12 months to support Youth Empowerment Summer (YES), a virtual alternative to New York City Department of Youth and Community Development’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP). Due the COVID-19 pandemic, public funding has been threatened for SYEP, which typically provides subsidized wages to approximately 75,000 youth who work with selected employers during the summer. YES was devised as a public-private partnership to mitigate the loss of SYEP. The YES program involves at least 60-90 hours of paid work from the end of July through August in one of the following categories: (1) community building research and service such as mapping store openings and gauging the spread of COVID-19 in local communities (2) academic support to younger students and peers, such as virtual tutoring (3) courses in Microsoft Office, Google Suites, etc. and (4) pre-college credit-bearing courses. Youth will work at home in cohorts of 15 to 20 with a facilitator who will organize synchronous and asynchronous activities. Students will receive $700-$1000 in stipend pay based on the work products, active participation in group sessions, and evidence of work conducted outside of the group. The YES program aims to serve 35,000 young people, ages 14 to 21, from New York City communities hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.