Students to learn skills, spruce up city

SPRINGFIELD — Jason Wilburn, a 16-year-old high school student, needed a summer job, but didn’t really know where to start looking.

Thanks to a recent infusion of stimulus funds at the Opportunities Industrialization Center, he — and more than 100 other area students — will be guaranteed a job for about 22 weeks.

“I have a lot of responsibilities at home like house cleaning and helping to take care of my younger sister,” he said, “so I wasn’t sure I could even get out to look for a job.”

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 initial Workforce Reinvestment Act stimulus allocations, OIC has received just over $624,000 to use for a summer jobs program that will offer opportunities to students ages 14 to 24 who meet certain criteria.

To be eligible, students must be at 100 percent of the federal poverty level and have significant barriers to success. Those barriers include things such as truancy, learning disabilities, foster care participation, homelessness, pregnancy, teen parent status, and deficiencies in basic literacy skills.

In total, Job and Family Services of Clark County received $1.39 million in stimulus money and distributed the funds to OIC and WorkPlus; approximately 10 percent of the funds are required to be set aside for administrative purposes.

Stimulus guidelines require about 70 percent of funds be spent by September and the remainder by December.

How the funds will help

Many local companies that used to hire students for the summer have had to lay off workers and don’t have the financial wherewithal to hire students, so there are simply fewer jobs available.

The stimulus dollars will allow OIC to help students earn a summer paycheck, said Mike Calabrese, OIC’s executive director, while helping them understand the importance of a strong work ethic and learning to take pride in their work and community.

“Over the last eight years, our funds for a summer work program was diminished to between $13,000 and $15,000. We could support eight students working four hours per day for four weeks,” he added.

This summer he’ll be working with about 120 participants and already has 55 from the existing WIA roster.

Wilburn, already involved with OIC, is looking forward to his summer work.

“It’s going to be exciting to get out and have some independence. I’m going to use the money for driver’s ed(ucation),” he said, adding there would be no way for him to afford the classes without his new job.

Interested students can find an application at workplus.cc.

Jobs will be age-appropriate, with younger students working at Hayward Middle School doing landscaping. Older students will work around the city at locations including Snyder Park and Clark State Community College.

Students will also receive job skills and personal development training.

“Our goal is to make kids more employable and to get some money into the hands of economically disadvantaged youth. ... We want to give these kids the opportunity to work hard and learn about the rewards from that,” Calabrese said.

Work to be done

A required focus on green jobs has created a partnership among OIC, the city of Springfield and National Trail Parks and Recreation District to clean the parks, work on landscaping and do some facilities repair.

An OIC crew of about 10 will work in Snyder Park and in other areas of the conservancy district. “The students will do the type of work we couldn’t get to because we didn’t have the funds. This is a great benefit in part because there is no direct cost to the city,” said Springfield City Manager Jim Bodenmiller.

The park, which has an important historical place in the community, has been in a state of disrepair for many years. The OIC crew will provide the labor to clean up the park’s waterways and repair and improve facilities.

The city has designated about $300,000 to NTPRD for capital improvements, but road repair was to be the focus in Snyder Park.

The students will fill the void and work to clean out the lagoon and repair the Boat House.

“The way I see it, this is a win all the way around. It’s a win for the student workers, the city, NTPRD and the community. It will help teach students much-needed job skills and help to create productive citizens,” Bodenmiller said.

Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs – or GEAR UP – will utilize some of OIC’s labor pool, said Springfield Director Theresa Felder. The GEAR UP program is available to all Springfield city middle and high school students. It provides early career exploration, ACT fee assistance and tutors, college visits, teacher professional development and supplies and materials.

Felder will employ eight upperclass city high school students in good academic standing for their summer program — a transition program for eighth-graders going to high school.

Four students will be hired for both four-week sessions. After that, Felder said, those students will work for Clark State for the remainder of the program, possibly in the library or computer labs.

The remaining stimulus dollars

WorkPlus received a portion of the allocation, totaling approximately $638,687 for adult assistance. More than 60 percent of that will fund dislocated worker retraining programs. The remainder will go to other adult job training programs, according to Lehan Peters, the program’s director.

“This gives us a great opportunity because we don’t often have the money or the staff to accomplish everything we want to. ... WIA is intended to get people back to work so these funds can be used for any classes, training or skills development that lead to jobs in high-demand occupations and fields,” she said.

The average cost of retraining a dislocated worker is about $5,000 per individual, she said, so this money will allow about 87 additional people to receive assistance.

Peters and her staff are working to place people in short-term certification and credentialing programs.

“Even if you have severance or unemployment, now is not the time to take time off. Get out there and take advantage of what’s available right now because it won’t be available for long,” Peters said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0371 or elroberts@coxohio.com.