Summer Jobs+: Inside a White House Launch

View Summer Jobs Plus: Anatomy of a White House Launch on Prezi

Highlights from the Launch
Business leaders, young people, the CEO of United Way Worldwide, several Cabinet Members and President Obama himself all spoke at the event. Among the many highlights:

• 6.7 million young people are disconnected from school and work.

• If we do nothing to support these 6.7 million "opportunity youth," the aggregate social burden will top $4.75 trillion – far higher than the cost it would take to reconnect them to education and work, as John Bridgeland, CEO of Civic Enterprises, noted.

• More than 367,000 young people found summer work opportunities in 2009 and 2010 because of the Recovery Act.

• Summer Jobs+ will create 180,000 employment opportunities for low-income youth in the summer of 2012, with a goal of reaching 250,000 employment opportunities by the start of summer, at least 100,000 of which will be placements in paid jobs and internships.

• Janet Murguía, President of the National Council of La Raza, pointed out that the disparities among Latinos (half a million of whom turn 18 every year) and African Americans are particularly severe.

• With the audience leaning forward to hear every word, the young people spoke of their time in gangs, dealing drugs, hustling and stealing to survive. It is a story all too common in our country. What they described next is a story all too rare in our country: an organization opened its arms and helped them find a new way to get by. A different set of skills from those they learned on the streets; a different path that leads to a productive adulthood, instead of to jail or the morgue.

• Alma Powell of America’s Promise noted that when business leaders tell her that “we have jobs but can’t find qualified people to take them,” she tells them that they should “grow [those leaders]."
   
• Hilda Solis, the Secretary of Labor, recounted her summer job as a recreation aide. The values she learned there – to believe in herself and that hard work does pay off – helped propel her to become one of the first Latinas to serve in the President’s Cabinet.

• President Obama: "For young people to be able to sit in an atmosphere which people are providing services or making goods, adding value, and to say to themselves ‘you know, I could do that too.’ And then for them to then have the opportunity to see somebody who is already in a position they might aspire who says, and ‘well here’s how I got here, and here’s what was required. Here are the steps you need to take.’ That’s invaluable."