The failure of lawmakers to pass a state budget is having a direct impact on summer jobs for Connecticut’s youth.
No state budget means no summer jobs for more than 1,000 young people throughout the state.
Connecticut is now running under executive order, so there’s no funding for the Summer Youth Employment Program, which employs high school students throughout the region who are between the ages of 14 and 21, and who qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches.
The program places students in public and private sector jobs that provide not only work experience, skills, and structure, but also a paycheck.
Democrats in the General Assembly have said they’ll try to pass a budget on July 18, but Jim Boucher of Capital Workforce Partners told WNPR’s Where We Live that may be too late for some students. Boucher’s organization coordinates the summer youth employment program in the state’s north-central region
“The clock has almost run out,” Boucher said. “We have had to notify regional programs that they’ve been canceled. But if the state does come through, I’m sure that we will try our hardest to figure something out. Should that summer time clock reach a point where we’re into August, and we’re needing to think about youth employment, there are school year opportunities beyond summer.”
In Hartford, the program is running at a reduced rate. About 600 students will still get summer jobs through aid from the city and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.
