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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Michary Almanzar, Representative of Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation (NMIC)
5:45:26
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127 sec
Michary Almanzar, representing the Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation (NMIC), testified about their YouthBuild program, which provides paid GED and tech skills training to young adults. She highlighted the program's accomplishments and requested a renewal of their $350,000 budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
- NMIC is a multi-service agency in Upper Manhattan serving about 14,000 clients annually with various support services.
- YouthBuild has enrolled 30 participants this year, with 10 graduates obtaining their high school equivalency diploma and 25 receiving wraparound services.
- Almanzar emphasized the need for continued funding due to cuts in US Department of Labor YouthBuild funding and workforce initiatives.
Michary Almanzar
5:45:26
Did it go?
5:45:26
Okay.
5:45:27
Hi, my name is Michiel Manzar and I am representing Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation along with some of my staff and students which you'll hear soon more about our program.
5:45:37
But Nimiq is a multi service agency.
5:45:40
We're located in Upper Manhattan and we service about 14,000 clients a year.
5:45:45
Some of the services that we offer our clients is education, career support, finance, domestic violence prevention, mental health support and more.
5:45:59
So particularly YouthBuild is within our education and career services department and YouthBuild is a paid GED and tech skills program.
5:46:10
So a lot of our young adults come in because they were either court involved, they became a parent, first generation, they moved from another country, they don't know how to access resources in this country, so they come into our program so that we can provide them with the community resources as mentioned and also help them in their education and career goals as well.
5:46:30
So I do wanna thank the council members for helping us in our accomplishments so far.
5:46:34
We've enrolled 30 participants this year, 10 of which are graduates and obtained their high school equivalency diploma, twenty five obtained wraparound services including in mental health, food, housing, and five of those 10 have passed at least a sub test within the GED and we anticipate will pass by the end of the year or in the summer.
5:46:57
I am asking for a renewal of our 350,000 budget from last year to this upcoming year, fiscal twenty fiscal year twenty six.
5:47:08
In 2024, the US Department of Labor cut youthful funding and workforce initiatives substantially which has hurt us some workforce opportunities for young adults and we wanna make sure that we maintain whole and continue to support our young adults for the future as well.
5:47:26
So we look forward to our partnership with you guys and yeah, continuing to allow our students to feel welcome and supported.
5:47:32
Thank you.