L.A. Wins $3-Million Grant for Youth Jobs
The Labor Department awarded a $3-million grant Thursday to Los Angeles to help at-risk youths in Watts obtain jobs.
Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich said Los Angeles is one of three cities--Houston and Chicago are the others--to win the grants, the first of funding of its kind to target school dropouts in the inner city.
The city of Los Angeles has pledged to match the grant with $4.3 million in public and private-sector funds. Private employers, including McDonald’s Corp. and Rockwell International Corp.’s Space Systems division, have also pledged to provide more than 700 jobs.
Reich said the Los Angeles grant will be used to reach as many as 3,145 out-of-school youths who are among 19,000 residents in the Watts area. He said at least 55% of the youths there are out of school and unemployed.
“This is one of society’s urgent problems; they are becoming America’s invisible class,” Reich said in announcing the pilot project Thursday.
The grants will be used to provide job training and counseling as well as to help dropouts obtain high school equivalency certificates, he said. The goal is to lower unemployment among youths in high-poverty areas to 20% from rates that now are as high as 70%.
Labor officials said 50 cities applied for the Donald J. Kulick Grant, named in honor of the longtime federal official who advocated jobs for youths.
The one-year grants will be administered by the private industry councils in each area. The program begins in July.
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