Patrick announces increase in funding for youth summer jobs

By John C. Drake, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick today announced a 27 percent increase in money for summer jobs, boosting funding for the youth program to $5.6 million, which includes an additional $151,000 for Boston.

"With warm weather approaching and schools letting out, it's absolutely imperative that we offer constructive alternatives to guns, gangs, and violence," Patrick said at a news conference. "Communities cannot be secured through policing alone."

The governor appeared with three Boston teenagers who said jobs they worked through the YouthWorks summer job programs helped them stay out of trouble.

"There are young men out there who want to do something with their life and be productive citizens," said Jelani Lynch, an 18-year-old from the South End.

Along with the increased funding, the governor said he was directing agencies to coordinate their education, employment, and social services for youth with a focus on hotspots for violence and gang activity "where young people are especially vulnerable."

YouthWorks supplements private funding to pay wages of at-risk young people in summer jobs in 25 cities and towns in the state. It is directed by the quasi-private Commonwealth Corporation, which passes the funding through to local workforce investment boards.

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