BOBBY DIGI FOR ASSEMBLY issued the following announcement on April 16.
North Shore Councilwoman Debi Rose, who chairs the City Council’s Committee on Youth Services, will present the council’s budget negotiating team and Mayor Bill de Blasio with a plan in the coming weeks to bring back the Summer Youth Employment Program remotely.
Earlier this month, the city announced it would cancel its annual Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) this summer out of an abundance of caution during the coronavirus
Cutting the program will save the city $124 million over fiscal year 2020-2021 and the mayor added this cut in the fiscal 2021 executive budget he unveiled Thursday.
Rose’s announcement comes as the mayor insisted Tuesday he does not foresee the city’s Summer Youth Employment program coming back even if the coronavirus outbreak improves.
The mayor said the city could not spend money on programs like SYEP where “there’s no guarantee” it could happen.
But Rose said she and SYEP providers have been working on a plan to create remote and virtual programming without exposing the city’s youth to the coronavirus.
“I understand what [de Blasio’s] saying but what we’re saying is that taken into consideration all of his concerns there are some options that would allow us to do some modified programming for young people this summer,” Rose said,
“So many of these young people depend on these salaries for everything, their families depend on it, it’s not just disposable income for them,” Rose continued. “Their families use it to help pay bills, they buy their school supplies and school clothes.”
Rose also said the city could start SYEP at a later date after the beginning of July to give the program’s providers time to put together programs for the city’s youth.
If the mayor and City Council agreed to a modified SYEP, Rose’s office does not anticipate funding to exceed the $124 million cost.
SYEP is the largest youth employment program and typically provides 75,000 city-funded summer jobs to New York City youth, including about 4,500 Staten Island youth between the ages of 14 to 24 every summer.
Rose said the city gave SYEP providers just 24 hours to shut down the decades-long program.
Last week, more than 70 SYEP providers wrote to the mayor and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson to extend a deadline to allow them to come up with a programming solution.
They also called on the mayor and Johnson to help them set up remote programs this summer.
Original source here.
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