ANAHEIM : Youths Help Selves While Helping City

Seventeen-year-old Maria Lua is fielding angry phone calls for the mayor, 17-year-old Belen Chavez is typing up to 55 words per minute, and 15-year-old Albert Aguilar is looking forward to his first paycheck.

“I kind of listen to (angry phone callers) and try to get them to the right person,” said Lua, who works as an administrative assistant in Mayor Tom Daly’s office. “Because I am not the right person.” The mayor is “nice,” she added.

The teen-agers are among 410 young people working for the city this summer under the federal Jobs Training Partnership Act. The city received $1 million in federal money for the salaries and administrative costs of hiring youths from low-income families who otherwise would have little chance of obtaining a summer job.

“You get to earn your own money,” said Aguilar, a recreation supervisor at John Marshall Park. “I’m going to buy some back-to-school clothes and put the rest in the bank.”

This year the program had 750 applicants vying for clerical, maintenance, child care and recreation jobs. To be eligible for the program, now in its 13th year, candidates must be 14 to 21, live in Anaheim and come from a low-income background. Participants earn the minimum wage during the 10-week program, which started June 20.

“It’s amazing the difference you’ll see,” said program coordinator Tom Bayard. “At the beginning they can come in here sullen, withdrawn and with a little of an attitude, but then you give them some responsibility and success and you can really see a positive change.”

In years past, the program hired applicants on a first-come, first-served basis. This year, however, the city awarded jobs based on need, Bayard said. Those employed include former gang members, teen-age parents and high school students with third-grade reading levels, Bayard said.

A major goal is to prepare youths to enter the work force. Toward that end, youths will attend classes this summer on how to write a resume and on gaining work maturity skills. The work maturity course stresses the importance of timeliness, how to deal with supervisors and co-workers and wearing appropriate attire to the workplace.

“This job gives you an inside look at how City Hall works,” said Aileen Bedolla, 15, an administrative assistant for the Public Works Department.

If it weren’t for the program, the youths say, the summer would be boring and less materially rewarding.

“I’d probably be at home,” said Chavez, in her third year with the program. “And I wouldn’t be shopping so much.”