For the past three years, Doudrithge D’Haiti has relied on Evanston’s Summer Youth Employment Program to find jobs.
He has worked as a janitor for the Evanston Police Department, an accountant for the city and also in the theater at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center.
“It’s a really great program,” said D’Haiti, 17. “It gave me the skills I need to get a full-time job after high school.”
The program, which received $237,200 from the city last year, was one of several that City Council considered cutting from its proposed 2002-03 budget.
But thanks to D’Haiti and about 90 other residents who rallied Saturday in the parking lot of the Evanston Civic Center, 2100 Ridge Ave., aldermen voted against slicing the program in a special budget meeting.
Residents waved signs with slogans such as “Overhaul City Hall and save SYEP” and “What about the kids?” They paraded around the lot, chanting: “Save the children, save ’em now. United we stand, divided we fall.”
Council members said citizen participation influenced their decision to keep the program and two branch libraries.
“I feel the significant (community) support reflects the value that these are very important programs,” said Ald. Gene Feldman (9th).
The Summer Youth Employment Program began in Evanston 10 years ago because of increased gang activity and loss of youth employment opportunities, said Paula Haynes, the city’s executive director of human relations.
The first year, a consortium of social service agencies referred a group of 14- and 15-year-olds to participate in the program. They spent 10 weeks cleaning alleys.
In subsequent years, the program expanded to include a job fair. Participants submit applications to work in private businesses or city departments. They also can work with ArtSkills, a branch of the program where they paint murals or benches, or with TheatreSkills, where they put on plays.
The program employed 113 teenagers last year.
“The program is an asset to our community,” Haynes said at a Human Relations Commission meeting last week. “People need to speak out to save it.”
At the Human Relations Commission meeting, James Sibley, executive director of the Youth Job Center of Evanston, Inc., presented a proposal for a lower-cost alternative to the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program. He suggested a six-week internship program in which teenagers would shadow business owners. The program would have cost the city about $80,000 per year.
Haynes said the alternate program might not work because it did not include a plan to train employers to work with the youth. The lower-cost program also did not specify who would be eligible and who would assume liability for any problems or injuries that could occur.
“I don’t think (the program) has a real sense of what they’re dealing with,” Haynes said.
D’Haiti said he is glad the original summer employment program will be offered again next year. He said he plans to work for TheatreSkills.
“I feel very relieved that the council stopped talking about cutting it,” D’Haiti said. “A lot of people in the town love the youth job program.”
