Youth Job Funds May Be Increased : Training: An additional 400 county youngsters could be employed this summer under federal legislation.

As part of President Clinton’s strategy to revive the nation’s economy, federal labor officials hope to send an additional $2.5 million to Ventura County for providing summer jobs for youths.

The additional funds, which would allow local job-training organizations to employ 400 more young people than usual this summer, are the county’s share of a proposed $400-million increase to a national summer-youth employment program.

But the summer-job funding is part of the President’s economic-stimulus package, which has been temporarily stymied by a Republican filibuster in the U.S. Senate.

Despite the intense opposition to the President’s overall economic program, officials who distribute federal job-training funds locally say they expect the additional funding for summer youth employment to survive.

Francisco De Leon, executive director for the Job Training Policy Council of Ventura County, said even the President’s political opponents are expected to approve the additional funds for summer jobs.

“My understanding is none of the Republicans are opposed to the youth employment section of the economic stimulus package,” said De Leon, whose agency distributes federal job-training funds to various organizations around the county. “Nobody’s willing to come out and say it’s not a good idea to have summer youth employment.”

For Ventura County, the additional money would mean that De Leon’s agency could increase from 800 to 1,200 the number of youths who would get summer jobs clearing trails in Los Padres National Forest, painting over graffiti and doing a multitude of other tasks for public and nonprofit agencies, De Leon said.

And the young people, ages 14 to 21, would earn more money.

The council would use the additional funds to increase the youths’ work hours from 30 to about 40 per week and to stretch each job out to 10 weeks instead of the usual limit of eight.

The federal job-training program is targeted primarily to youths from lower-income families who need the money, he said.

One Oxnard teen-ager who has already applied with the job-training council for summer work this year is Soraya Romero, 14.

“I always have wanted to earn my own money,” said Soraya, a freshman at Rio Mesa High School. However, she said, “most restaurants want you to be at least 16.”

One of five children, Soraya said her family lives entirely on her father’s wages as a farm laborer.

If she gets a summer job this year, she will probably give half her earnings to her mother, she said. “(With) the other half I would probably just buy clothes.”

In addition to providing youths with the opportunity to learn job skills and earn money, the summer youth employment program gives young people a chance to improve their basic reading and math skills outside of the normal school setting, De Leon said.

Youths who need such remedial training attend classes in the mornings before they report to work.

“We say if you don’t go to school, you don’t go to work,” De Leon said.

If Congress approves additional money for the employment program, the Ventura County job- training council would use nearly $500,000 of the funds to expand the morning classes to include literature, algebra and other subjects beyond basic math and reading, De Leon said.

But the job-training council would divvy up most of the $2.5 million between the four agencies already approved to provide summer-jobs this year: the cities of Thousand Oaks and Oxnard; the office of the county superintendent of schools, and El Concilio del Condado de Ventura, an Oxnard- based social-services organization for Latinos.

Lonnie Miramontes, director of community services at El Concilio, said his organization would get $343,988--more than double what it had expected--if the funding increase goes through.

With the additional money, El Concilio could employ 136 youths instead of the 71 initially planned, he said.

El Concilio is gearing its summer employment program toward youths with the greatest problems: teen-agers who are pregnant or who are parents already, and those who are on probation with the courts or at risk of dropping out of school, Miramontes said.

The young people will attend workshops each morning at Oxnard College on topics such as goal-setting and, for the teen mothers and fathers, parenting skills, Miramontes said.

In the afternoons, they will work on campus as receptionists, groundskeepers and in other jobs.

Miramontes said his agency never counts on getting government money or grants until the funds are in hand.

“We hope,” he said. “But we don’t expect.”