REMARKS
Impact of Jobs Plus program cuts and the need for flexible community-based services
1:32:33
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97 sec
Council Member Diana I. Ayala expresses concern over the loss of the Jobs Plus programs and emphasizes the need for more flexible, community-based workforce development services. She highlights the connection between unemployment, poverty, and youth violence.
- Criticism of the Jobs Plus program cuts as a missed opportunity to address youth unemployment and violence
- Call for less restrictive programs to allow greater community participation
- Discussion on the importance of considering the impact beyond specific housing developments
Diana I. Ayala
1:32:33
And just to piggyback off of that, I think, you know, one of the reasons why I was so upset about the loss of the jobs plus programs is that I thought, you know, it was a missed opportunity because of the the high rate of you know, youth on youth violence and unemployment.
1:32:46
Right?
1:32:46
The correlation between violence and, you know, poverty is is real.
1:32:51
And we, you know, I think missed an opportunity to really help address it, and I I hope that, you know, through the new RFP processes, you'll be thinking that that you are looking at the data so that these programs continue to exist in communities that really need them, but then also not make them as restrictive so that there is a little bit of flexibility because we have a lot of young people in the community that would love to be able to walk into a jobs plus program, but maybe live across the street from a night job.
1:33:21
Mhmm.
1:33:22
And, you know, I don't I think it be you know, after a while, you've already hit the whole development.
1:33:26
Like, you can't you know, you what else is there to do?
1:33:31
So we're kind of setting them up for failure.
1:33:33
Right?
1:33:34
They'll they'll be successful for a couple of years, but then they'll have no one else to talk to because they haven't already spoken to everybody.
1:33:39
You can no.
Scott French
1:33:40
I'm
Althea Stevens
1:33:40
just even with that when you think about the impact of nature.
1:33:43
Right?
1:33:43
Like, we can't just say we're gonna have a concentration of nature because it's a community.
1:33:47
So we have to think about this in a, again, a holistic way of, like, if you're serving in nature and you're not serving the folks that's outside nature, that's still gonna affect the residents of nature.
1:33:57
Right?
1:33:57
So because that's all gonna bleed into it.
1:33:59
And so I I just wanted to support what you're saying just around.
1:34:01
It's important for us to think about how do we look at this in a holistic way and look at it more community opposed to thinking about a development.
Diana I. Ayala
1:34:09
Yeah.
1:34:10
Yeah.