Cleveland.com reports on Cleveland City Council’s plan to fund youth jobs. This decision funds two important Y.O.U. Programs: Fresh Start & Summer Youth Employment Program.

CLEVELAND, Ohio – A Cleveland City Council panel signed off Wednesday on a plan to spend $2.7 million over the next 18 months on programs to provide employment for youth, keep them out of trouble and help those in trouble re-enter society.

The programs are part of an effort that Mayor Frank Jackson’s administration launched in 2018 to expand Cleveland’s 22 recreation centers into resource centers that also help families deal with the impacts of trauma and toxic stress.

The City Council’s Public Safety Committee signed off on legislation for the plan. It could be taken up by the full council on June 7, the council’s last meeting before summer recess.

Jackson’s signature will be needed for the legislation to take effect.

The new initiatives target three specific areas, said Tracy Martin-Thompson, Jackson’s chief of prevention, intervention and opportunity for youth and young adults. They are:

• A diversion program through Jackson’s Fresh Start Initiative to help keep youth ages 15 to 19 from getting into trouble and into the criminal justice system. Those efforts will include wraparound services that provide enrichment and job training.

• A program in conjunction with the Cuyahoga Hills Juvenile Correction Facility and others to prepare youth ages 17 to 20 for re-entry into society. In addition to diversion services, the program will work to prepare families and provide a supportive environment.

• Summer employment for about 200 young people in grades 8 through 12, who will be paid $8.80 an hour for up to 24 hours a week for six weeks, and a pilot program that will provide life and job skills to 10 middle grade youth. The youths will identify community problems and study solutions.

Martin-Thompson did not have a specific breakdown for each of the new programs, the components of which will involve several contracts and partnerships.

The money was included in the budget for the Office of Prevention, Intervention and Opportunity for Youth and Young Adults, but approval by the council is required for the administration to enter contracts for the programs.

The effort is part of the Jackson administration’s focus on treating crime and violence as a public health problem.

Children who are constantly exposed to stress -- poverty, crime and violence and a sense of helplessness – can suffer health consequences from the constant release of stress hormones in the body. Those consequences can affect behavior, including leading to violence.

Left untreated, the impacts of toxic stress can remain into adulthood.

When the administration launched the effort in 2018, it moved to provide residents with access to support services at all recreation centers, Martin-Thompson said.

Staff were trained to identify symptoms of toxic stress. Trained counselors were made available at each rec site. And programs were expanded beyond traditional recreational activities to include education and job training, health and wellness, arts and non-traditional sports, such as rowing.

And the city partnered with Cleveland State University, Kent State University and Case Western Reserve University on staff development to raise the quality of service in all rec centers.

“If you want to make sure that trauma informed care principles are imbedded in how we operate and function, we have to make sure all [rec centers] are operating at a high-quality level,” Martin-Thompson told council members. “They have to be consistent across the board.”

Councilman Brian Kazy, who previously worked with juveniles and adults as a Cuyahoga County probation officer, said working with families on re-entry is hugely important for its success.

“When I was running a diversion program the hardest thing we did was to get the youth and the parents to interact with one another,” Kazy said. “I was overly shocked at the number of parents that don’t know their children, nor could they just sit down and do a puzzle with them.”

Updated May 26, 2021; Posted May 26, 2021

By Robert Higgs, cleveland.com