While trying to keep up with school and a part-time job, Kendra was also about to age out of foster care.  She had lived at the Board of Child Care for 10 years and moved into an Independent Living program that provides support services to youth ages 14 to 21, designed to transition youth from foster care to self-sufficiency.  Between school loans and apartment needs, Kendra was struggling to make ends meet.

On September 28, 2016,
1st Choice Staffing held a recruitment event in the
East Baltimore community at the Eastside One-Stop Career Center. Recruiters Kim Roane and Stanna Davis worked with Business Services staff from the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development to secure interview space, promote the jobs and assist job seekers with the 1st Choice application process.  

More than 1,400 youth were engaged in productive activities instead of being placed in secure detention while awaiting court date

The PACT evening reporting center annually serves 120 young men, between 14 and 17, who would otherwise be in secure detention while awaiting their court date. PACT provides them with youth development activities, creative learning projects, field trips and access to a workout center with a qualified fitness instructor. Participants are referred by the Department of Juvenile Services (DJS) to Youth Opportunity (YO) Baltimore, a program operated by the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development that serves 17-24-year-olds who are out of work and out of school.

Several thousand of the 8,300 YouthWorks participants begin working during the first of two, five-week summer sessions

Today more than 7,000 Baltimore City youth and young adults, ages 14-21, will start working at hundreds of YouthWorks summer job sites. Operated by Mayor Catherine E. Pugh’s Office of Employment Development, YouthWorks has provided more summer employment opportunities in 2017 than ever before thanks to the impressive public-private support from government, businesses, foundations and individuals.