A grant of nearly $200,000 has been awarded to the Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program, Evanston announced Tuesday.

The grant was given by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Youth Recreation Corps to help fund the summer program.

“This important award from the IDNR will help Evanston provide more than 60 jobs for teens who want to be active and employed this summer,” Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl said in a news release. “Thanks to Governor Pat Quinn’s support of the IDNR program, the City has now surpassed its target goal of 500 positions in the Summer Youth Employment Program in 2014.”

The Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program seeks to help students ages 14 to 18 find employment during the summer.

After having 260 students participate in last year’s program, the mayor aimed to have 500 individuals partake in the program this year. The program has already managed to hire the most participants since its creation in 1992.

The $188,352 from the IDNR is the second grant the city received to fund the summer program and will be used alongside the funds Cook County’s Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services awarded Evanston earlier this month.

The city received a notification letter dated June 12 from the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Service explaining that Evanston was selected from more than 60 applications to receive $107,639.23 to fund summer jobs for youths at risk.

Kevin Brown, an employee with Evanston’s Youth & Young Adult Division, told The Daily that the funds awarded from the county’s issued Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program, which is also referred to as the JAG program, will be used to fund 52 part-time and 31 full-time summer jobs.

The addition of those 83 jobs then put the city at 448 positions, leaving the new funding from IDNR to help Evanston fulfill its goal of 500 positions.

The IDNR Youth Recreation Corps awards grants to local governments to provide wages for youth ages 14 to 18 working with recreation or conservation programs.

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