DOES lays out GrowDC workforce investments and apprenticeships; council questions paid‑leave reductions

At the Committee on Executive Administration and Labor’s June 11 budget oversight hearing, Department of Employment Services (DOES) Director Unique Morris Hughes presented the agency’s FY26 GrowDC budget and described planned investments in youth employment, apprenticeships and trainings while defending administration of unemployment insurance and paid‑leave programs.

DOES’s overview: Director Hughes said the proposed FY26 operating budget for DOES is $181,600,000, composed of local, federal and special purpose revenue funds. He said the Marion Barry Summer Youth Employment Program would provide roughly 12,000 young residents with six‑week work experiences at more than 725 host sites; the agency intends to place 1,000 high school students in internships and to provide a 22–24 year old “reconnect” program for 175 young adults. Hughes discussed expansion of registered apprenticeships—DOES said it currently works with several hundred sponsors and spoke to a target of growing apprenticeship placements and pre‑apprenticeships, including a recent regionally registered…