Youth needs JOBS not JAILS
EXTRAVAGANZA! YOUTH FIGHTING FOR JOBS!
The young people in our city have set up an exciting day for Wednesday, April 30 from 9 am to 3 pm at City Hall Plaza. Each of the organizations in the Peer 2 Peer Network will be presenting a workshop showing what peer to peer teaching could look like. (more information about Peer 2 Peer can be found in this Baltimore Sun article
The students are encouraging young people to join them to learn from their peers and older folks to come support them as they urge Mayor Sheila Dixon to fund Peer to Peer Enterprises.
EXTRAVAGANZA! YOUTH FIGHTING FOR JOBS!
Here is a tentative schedule of the day:
9:05AM-9:30AM : Morning Assembly: Community Rap Session on P2P, presentations, discussion
10:00AM-12:00 pm : Session One (2 sets of 45 minute workshops by Peer2Peer groups)
12:00-1:00 pm : Break and Lunch
1:00-1:30: Afternoon Assembly: Community Rap Session on P2P, presentations, discussion
1:30-3:00 pm : Session Two: (2 sets of 45 minute workshops by Peer2Peer groups)
3:00-3:15 pm: Closing and Finale
Sponsored by: Hip Hop Congress Baltimore, Safe and Sound, Baltimore Algebra Project,Y.O.U.R.S., Kids on the Hill, Chesapeake Youth Development, Youth As Resources, Liberty Learning Center , Entrepreneurial Training University, Unchained Talent, Womb Works Productions, Baltimore Urban Debate League, Follow Your Dreams, Student Sharing Coalition
For more information, call Chris Goodman, 443-957-5346, or by e-mail: chris_byc@yahoo.com
April 29th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
And add to it a ‘Yourth Church Works Program’: How it works, no pun intended?
Members of every church will be asked to go to their bureaus, jewelry boxes, closets, basements, attics, storage places and refrigerators and freezers (the windows of heaven have long been open and most believers no longer have room to receive blessings - just for themselves) and take notice of all their accumulated shirts, blouses, pants, ties, scarfs, suits, dresses, minks coats, hats, shoes, boots, jewelry, toys, TV sets, gameboys, computers, cellphones, cars, SUVs, RVs, furniture, furnishings…!
Afterward each members pledges to not buy or charge another unneccesary garment, piece of furniture, piece of jewelry, car, trip to the Bahamas, extravagant dinner or outing… during the fiscal year. Instead, the equivalent sums that would have been wasted (vanity & greed in the church and home) will be donated to each church’s separately banked Youth Church Works Program account.
The dedicated monies will be used to hire young people, and provide them with paid jobs, including those who are involved in the administrative management of the program at each church, unless they choose to volunteer.
To sweeten the pot, dollars that are being set aside by each household for maintenance around the house, in addition to other planned expenditures (where someone outside of the home would be hired anyway) can be added to the budgeted pot.
Young men and women will be hired instead, (in some cases trained by the homeowner or church trainees) and dispatched to complete household tasks; and they will be paid out of the Youth Church Works Program that the members contributed to. The final piece, a percentage of the tithes (Remembe the Storehouse?) will be added to the YCWP Budget at each church.
The smallest churches will easly have YCWP budgets of $5k-10 per annum, medium-sized and larger churches will have 6-figure budgets - all to be spent on past-time and seasonal work for our young people, monies that would have been spent anyway.
And what will the young people of each church be tasked to do? They will be hired to complete miscellaneous tasks at the homes of the members, i.e., cut grass, paint and mend fences, change storm-windows for the elderly, rake leaves, clean garages, basements and attics, maintenance, care for the elderly …, that the homeowners would pay others to complete or try to complete themselves, anyway!
And if you don’t trust the church, every household could institute the same program at home by doing all of the above - it starts with setting aside a dedicated budget. Many households can set aside anywhere from $50 (the poorest), to in the thousands (for those who are better off), to put our young people to work. We must stop waiting for someone else to do it, and use our discretionary and disposable income to do more than purchase more bling bling for ourselves!
This will be my next project!