White House Aid Sought for Local Youth Jobs Corps

Long Beach Mayor Ernie Kell, eager to enlist in a top Clinton Administration initiative, went to the White House on Thursday to pitch the Conservation Corps of Long Beach as a showcase example for President Clinton’s proposed national service program.

“We have a model that works and a four-year track record” to prove it, Kell said of the youth-services program that takes between 60 and 70 unemployed young people off the streets each year and helps them develop new skills and a crisp new bearing, and gives them new jobs in public works and environmental projects.

Kell said he hopes to persuade Clinton and Congress to make the Long Beach Conservation Corps a model Youth Service Demonstration Project under the President’s new program to promote national service, making it eligible for federal funding.

If he succeeds, Kell said he will try to increase the size of the program each year for three years, reaching 500 youths annually, and increase the youth corps’ current annual budget from $1.5 million to $9.4 million.

Kell said Thursday night that White House officials had been encouraging, but he warned that funding for Clinton’s national service program might be some time in coming. In the meantime, White House officials urged the city to apply for a grant from the Commission on National Community Service, Kell said.

Gloria Johnson, White House outreach director for National Service, told Kell that move would position the program for funding under the national service banner once funds become available.

The city will apply to the commission for funding as a possible bridge to later funding, Kell said in an interview following his White House session. In the longer term, he added, “They said all the options were open, and everything was possible.”

The Long Beach Conservation Corps receives 52.5% of its operating budget from public funds, but raises 41% of its budget through work contracts and another 1.7% from recycling revenue. Private contributions from local businesses and associations account for 4.7% of its budget.

The Long Beach Conservation Corps hires adults from 18 to 23--most of them high school dropouts--to plant trees, clean parks and fix up community property. Roughly 90% of them have been minorities, Kell said.

The hourly wage is less than $5 but, Kell said, members learn teamwork and get training and experience, as well as encouragement to get back in school.

Of those who have participated in the program--which includes 7:30 a.m. calisthenics, strict discipline and training in grooming--36% have returned to school full time and 39% have gone on to other jobs. But the program’s emphasis on discipline isn’t uniformly popular: 15% of those who have joined the corps either dropped out or were dismissed.

Kell said that those enrolling in the program are pressed to return to school or to earn a high school equivalency certificate. “The more we encourage to go back school, the better,” he said.