Just Sayin'…From 500 to 2000 summer youth jobs is just fantastic

Recently Mayor Bill Peduto joined forces with County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis to announce that they will be working toward expanding the Summer City Youth Jobs program from 500 to 2000. Now that is the greatest news I’ve heard in a long time.
And what makes this news even greater is that most of these jobs will not be out in the blistering hot sun cutting overgrowth, almost like slaves. Just about every city has Summer Youth Jobs programs that are great for earning money over the Summer, but there’s no real training for any kind of career. But this one is suppose to have most of the kids working at businesses and other places where they can see professionals at work, and learn firsthand what they do. But before I go into that I must state that young people are constantly being badmouthed for being lazy and not wanting to work. And some of that is true, but last year there were 500 spots and 1300 applied. These are not easy jobs, I know I worked two summers as a high school youth in my hometown and they were much like working in the fields of Tennessee, but the money helped me buy school clothes and some other things thus taking the burden off my mom.
Yet knowing about this hard work 1300 Pittsburgh youth applied, that’s saying something about our youth. If you put the challenge in front of them, if you give them a chance most are more than willing to work for their money.
What the mayor, county executive and Bettis are trying to do is history making. Someone somewhere may be doing it but not to my knowledge.  I don’t think any city really tried to work with the businesses throughout their city to help poor youth work at businesses so that they can learn about the business and the business world as a whole.
Most of these young people have never been exposed to 99 percent of the businesses out there. I know I wasn’t, my mother was a domestic, and my father was a Jack of All Trades, meaning he did whatever paid, from construction to auto mechanic. And I didn’t learn anything through the Summer Youth Jobs Program either because we worked in the hot sun cutting grass and overgrown swaths on city property. And even though none of us liked it, we enjoyed the pay.
Even though I kept after school and summer jobs it was the first job for most of the youth, which is probably the case with all cities.
I certainly wish the Mayor, County Executive and Bettis luck in this ground-breaking effort. If they are successful this will show the rest of the country what they have been missing out on which hopefully will lead to them implementing the same kind of program in their cities. Can you imagine New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Louisville, Newark, Gary, Cleveland, Houston, Memphis, Jackson, Charlotte, Richmond, Boston, San Diego, Miami, just to name a few, implementing this program? And these are the big cities; think of all the small cities like Champaign, Ill., where I worked implementing this effort.
Young people are like the vast, vast majority of adults who want to work; they want to earn their own money, all they ask is the opportunity. And thank God, someone is finally trying to do something about it, other than talk.
Peduto’s response was, “There are thousands of economically disadvantage youths in Pittsburgh who want jobs but don’t have the connections or resources to get them. We can provide that opportunity to them and their families, while building a job–training pipeline to the city’s growing network of 21st century employers.”
I’m glad to see the County Executive involved for the first time. This gives kids out in Braddock, Duquesne, McKeesport, McKees Rocks, Wilkinsburg, Homestead and the other suburban cities an opportunity for jobs as well. The plan is to get 1300 jobs for city residents and 700 for outlining areas.
Once again hats off to Mayor Peduto, County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis and all the businesses who open their doors to these youths.
Governor Tom Wolf is to be commended on many things but his first major accomplishment as Governor is forcing UPMC and Highmark to sit down at the table and agree to allow women who want to have their babies at Magee hospital that right. Now can he keep it up by forcing, persuading, or convincing them to put the patients first and their profits and egos last overall?
Governor Wolf says he will be active in making sure that the rights and well being of the patients are first in the fight between these two giants. I wish him well in convincing them that there’s enough money for both of them, and that it really is in their best interest to work together. After all they are dealing with peoples’ lives.
With them feuding, it hurts everybody, because if a person can’t find a doctor in the UPMC line who can help him or her then they should be allowed to seek a doctor outside this coverage. The same should be true of Highmark. Or if I have a doctor I’m satisfied with I shouldn’t have to change because my employer changed insurance carriers.
If Gov. Wolf can fix this then his next stop may be the White House, because there’s nothing more important to people than their health.
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