City Program Tries to Make Dint in Demand for Summer Jobs

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The Times Sunday, June 26,1983
CADDO/BOSSIER Classified 2 Tell The Times 20 C
YOUTH AT WORK
City program tries to make dint in demand for summer jobs
By CONLEY SMITH
The Times
Helen Herbert, a Northeast Lou-isiana
University accounting
major, couldn't find a summer job in
her field again this summer. So she
turned, for the third time, to
Shreveport's Human Resource De-veldpment's
Summer Youth Employ-ment
program. She now works for
minimum wage an the information
desk at LSU-Medical Center.
But 15-year-old Rickey Nikoles is
still looking for his first job. He signed
up for the program but wasn't one of
the lucky 500 persons out of about
7,000 applicants to get called in for a
job. Rickey's mother is unemployed
and the family is on welfare. He has
tried looking for work but is usually
told he is too young.
The summer of 1983 is not like sum-mers
past, Herman Vital, an ad-mistrative
assistant and head job
counselor for Shreveport's CETA pro-gram,
explained.
In past years, programs such as the
Youth Employment Training Pro-gram
were extended into the summer
and with the regular Summer Youth
Employment program, or CETA
(Comprehensive Employment Train-ing
Act), generated about 1,200 jobs.
Although the number of the CETA jobs
— 500 — hasn't changed, the year-round
programs that are discontinued
haved placed more youths in competi-tion
for fewer summer jobs.
According to Vital, the average
youth worker in the program is 17
years of age, a junior or senior in high
school and black. On the average, they
work about five to eight hours a day.
However, Vital has more than an
average interest in these youths who
prove to be more than average
workers. Recently, he talked about the
program he has been a part of since
1969.
To qualify for a CETA job, youths
must be between 14 and 21 years of
age, live in the Shreveport city limits
and be a member of a family in a very
low income bracket. Vital seeks to em-ploy
a balance of those "most in need"
and older applicants "who will be go-ing
into the labor market" in the near
future.
Applicants are rated by the number
of points they total in different
categories. Points are given for the
different catagories they fall under,
such as economically disadvantaged,
age, minority, handicapped and sex.
Based on this figure they are then
ranked into high, middle and low pri-ority
categories.
Many of the youths are placed in
jobs based on their interests or their
future plans. Job sites for the youths
are all non-profit, quasi-public agen-cies.
Job sites include LSU Medical
Center and Veterans Administration
Times photo/LEE SHIVELY
Paper work is the name of the game for Jerry
Marshall and Sandra Gadson. The two work
in the medicine ciinic as Summer Youth Em-ployees
at LSU-Shreveport Medical Center.
Medical Center, which are the two
largest; the city, Caddo Parish School
Board; YMCA; Red Cross and Caddo
Community Action Agency.
Martin Evans is working in the data
processing department at
Shreveport's City Hall. For Martin,
the job has given him "hands-on ex-perience"
with computers, which will
help him when he majors in electrical
engineering this fall at Tulane Univer-sity.
He is saving money from his first
CETA job to buy a car for the fall.
Many of the CETA workers inter-viewed
were veterans of the program.
When they searched for jobs in private
industry they couldn't find anything
for the summer. Miss Herbert blames
the problem on the "unemployment
rate and being young and black." She
adds, "everything else says ex-perience."
"The program itself is an asset to
the community and to the country,"
Vital said. He believes more people
should "get an inside look" at the pro-gram.
He noted that many of the
youths are not using the money for
themselves but to pay their parent's
bills.
"Most kids will do good if provided
with a chance to do good," Vital
stresses. Vital has seen many youths
from deprived backgrounds who are
success stories because of their sum-mer
youth jobs.
Because many of the youths are not
"100 percent job ready," Vital be-lieves
the program is an advantage to
first-time job seekers. "It allows
youngsters to make a mistake," he ex-plained.
An orientation session is held
for the future employers and the new
workers, Vital said. But still many
youths must be given more than one
chance to get accustomed to a job.
Devonda Perry feels lucky to nave a
summer job in the records section of
the Shreveport Police Department.
Her job has changed her future plans.
Miss Perry planned on going into the
army but is now considering some
kind of police work.
Shundra O'Neal, who works as a
clerical worker at LSU-Medical
Center, said the best part about the
program is that "it gives you a chance
to experience work." She is one of 135
CETA workers at the Medical Center.
To Carla Sylvas, a Dillard Univer-sity
communications major, her job as
a clerk at the Medical Center means
Time* photo/LEE SHIVELY Times photo/TOM STANFORD
Lisette Broussard spends her
working hours at the LSU —
Shreveport Medical Center as
a nurse's aid. The 15-year-oid
is one of the Summer Youth
Employment workers at the
hospital.
"money plus experience."
Although 21-year-old Renee Brewer
didn't get a CETA job this summer, she
doesn't hold a grudge. Miss Brewer
doesn't think the cutbacks are unfair.
"Someone needed it more than I did,"
she said.
To make sure the youths at these job
sites are "actually performing mean-ingful
work activities" Vital has a
team of monitors who check job sites.
When Vital's office finds work sites
not putting CETA workers to work
Herman Vital, head counselor
for Shreveport's CETA pro-gram,
had to choose 500
youths out of 7,000 applicants
this summer for Shreveport's
Summer Youth Employment
program. He tries to give jobs
to a balance of those who are
the most needy and those who
will be entering the job market
in the near future.
they either correct the problem or
move the workers.
Vital said this is a problem some-times
because supervisors are not pa-tient
or trained to teach youths how to
work.
However, supervisors are not
always found at fault. If this problems
lies in a worker "sometimes we have
to terminate to make a point," Vital
said. Youths who are in the program
but not willing to work "need help but
not in this program."
But Vital added he is reluctant to
fire the youths. Only after giving them
a number of different jobs will he re-sort
to terminating a youth employee.
This probably has something to do
with an experience in New York's
Harlem ghetto two years ago. Vital
was walking along when a "young man
touched me on the back and said he
just wanted to thank me." Although
succeeding today, the young man had
been a hard worker to place many
years ago when he was a Shreveport
CETA worker.