DC’s Summer Youth Employment Program Begins With A Rough Start For Some

By KAREN GRAY HOUSTON/myfoxdc

WASHINGTON – It was like déjà vu at the nation’s largest summer youth jobs program and it seems as if every year, it’s troubled.

It was the first day District kids were to report to work this summer, but they encountered a myriad of problems, including long lines and issues with assignments.

Some kids showed up at Sabor Catering and Cafe on Georgia Avenue to discover there were no summer jobs. They say they were told Sabor’s did not have a contract with the Department of Employment Services.

Hundreds of kids say they were transported by bus from the Summer Youth Jobs headquarters in Northeast to the campus of Gallaudet University, to get issues like job transfers and reassignments addressed. They took a number and stood in line, many of them for hours.

Asked to comment on the chaos, a spokeswoman for Mayor Adrian Fenty e-mailed the following statement to FOX 5: “There are over 22,000 kids in the program. Some kids are being transferred to different assignments and other kinks may be getting ironed out. What’s the chaos?”

LINK:  www.does.dc.gov/does/cwp/view,a,1232,q,537757.asp

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