Hampton Roads to get stimulus funds to help youths

Next up for the $787 billion federal stimulus package: your kid's summer job.

About 950 teenagers and young adults in South Hampton Roads will go work this June, July and August, thanks to $2.2 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Eight localities will split the money to create eight-week summer work programs for people ages 14 to 24 from low-income families. The funds will pay for skills training and pay $7.25 an hour at 35 hours a week.

It'll mean a lot of free labor for cities. The young workers can be placed with nonprofits and private businesses, but most of the localities will assign them to city departments.

Virginia Beach, which expects to place 138 workers, plans to focus on green jobs, said Fagan Stackhouse, the city's director of human resources. That work might include landscaping, green building design and energy conservation, he said.

Suffolk plans to spread its 65 workers throughout the city. Two will get to help in the city manager's office, said Parks and Recreation Director Lakita Frazier. The city's program also will include an opportunity for children ages 14 to 15 to work 12 hours a week for a $100 stipend.

Applicants must be eligible under the Workforce Investment Act. That means they must meet a low-income requirement and fulfill one of several "barrier" categories, a list that includes having a skills deficiency or being a school dropout, runaway, parent or offender.

"We recognize that we have people that have difficulties, and we need to help get them ready for the work force," Stackhouse said.

About 91 percent of the money will pay for salaries and training, with the rest going to administer the programs, said Robert Sharak, public relations officer for Opportunity Inc. of Hampton Roads, the entity that is distributing the money and helping to set up the programs. "The goal was to have the vast majority of money get into the hands of the students," Sharak said. "That's why it's a stimulus program."

Norfolk is the only city in South Hampton Roads that already funds a youth work initiative, Sharak said.

That program, which only requires workers to be a Norfolk resident 16 to 19 years old, has grown steadily since its start in 2005. The first year it placed 142 workers, said Nancy Olivio, the city's director of human resources. Last year it placed about 300, plus another 80 in a pre-employment program.

This year, the city received about 1,000 applications.

Alissa Weathers, 18, will be back for her fourth year. The Maury High senior plans to major in criminal justice, so she's been getting experience working in the Norfolk Circuit Court clerk's office.

Weathers said she knows that summer work isn't always easy to come by.

"Everybody says how hard it is," she said. "Some of my friends got laid off. It's hard trying to find jobs."

As for the stimulus effect, Sharak said the paychecks will come with no advice on how to spend them.

Nonetheless, "I still remember when I was 17," Sharak said. "The assumption is most of it, or a good chunk of it, is going to be spent and not saved."

Because of the requirements for low-income backgrounds on the federal dollars, Olivio said she expected some of the young workers will use their earnings to help support their families.

As for others, "They will be out there buying iPods and sneakers and all the other things that teenagers buy," she said.

For information, call the following numbers:

* Chesapeake, 382-8184

* Norfolk, 664-4486

* Suffolk, 514-4011

* Portsmouth, 393-8626

Virginia Beach, 385-8854 or 385-8804 

Dave Forster, (757) 222-5563, dave.forster@pilotonline.com