Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Youth Employment Grants topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
DYO outlines summer hiring, grant timelines; YMCA to lead SSYI procurement narrative
Summary
Division of Youth Opportunities reported roughly 115 offers for summer positions, progress on training and curriculum changes for Rec Pool, Worcester Cares for Kids grant completion, and procurement activity tied to the SSYI grant with YMCA listed as lead partner and MassHire secured as employment partner.
The Division of Youth Opportunities (DYO) told the Worcester City Youth Advisory Commission that summer hiring and grant procurement are underway, with staff aiming to streamline contracts to reduce the gap between award and service delivery.
"DYO has made about 115 offers or so. A 100 of that is strictly youth workers," said Jodi Abreu, special project manager for the Division of Youth Opportunities. "We have 92 of them got back to us with responses." She added that staffing still needs to be completed for three to four assistant site coordinator roles.
Abreu said Rec Pool programming will have a new, weekly-theme curriculum for the summer and that city trainers have revamped session content. The Worcester Cares for Kids grant cohort that fulfilled the grant requirements has completed its work; Abreu said the program reached a goal of 100 youth completing CPR and first aid and that more than 200 youth have completed the classes over the past year.
On the Summer Youth Service and Investment (SSYI) grant, DYO submitted procurement materials and designated the YMCA as the lead applicant. "The YMCA is gonna be taking on the lead role for SSYI," Abreu said, and the YMCA plans to subcontract the case management portion and partner with MassHire for employment services. Abreu said behavioral health services were expected to be subcontracted to Isaiah Tucker.
Abreu described past delays with contracts and said the new request-for-proposals (RFP) process launched for the Shannon Community Safety Initiative (CSI) is designed to reduce execution time. The commission heard that letters of interest for Shannon CSI were due on the 23rd of the month; qualifying applicants will be invited to submit full proposals in June, with the aim of having contracts signed by Jan. 1 to remove service gaps.
The DYO update also noted uncertainty about a separate earmarked recreation allocation, which has historically been confirmed in October; Abreu said the department sometimes must reconfigure budgets if earmarks are delayed.
The commission's Community Advisory Board (CAB) will join the Shannon CSI application review team, a planned role intended to center lived experience in funding decisions, the commission chair said. No formal votes were recorded on funding allocations during the meeting.
