Youth Opportunity (YO!) Baltimore Celebrates its Successes
Youth Opportunity (YO!) Baltimore Celebrates its Successes | |||||
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Baltimore, Maryland – The Mayor’s Office of Employment Development is highlighting the achievements of nine Youth Opportunity (YO!) Baltimore alumni at a breakfast event Tuesday, March 25. These young adults represent the hundreds of YO! participants who have overcome significant barriers including periodic homelessness, substance abuse, grief, depression, lack of education, and unemployment. After joining YO! Baltimore, they were given the support and provided the direction to make better decisions and benefit from job training, education, and counseling services that have turned their lives around. The nine featured alumni have are now contributing positively to the community by being successfully employed and/or furthering their education. “YO! Baltimore is helping us live up to our obligations to the young people of Baltimore,” said Mayor Sheila Dixon. “It is important for us to support the transformation of young lives and to help disconnected youth and young adults become employable, productive citizens.” After the expiration of a multi-year US Department of Labor Youth Opportunity grant, Mayor Dixon and the Baltimore City Council recognized that YO! Baltimore had become entrenched as a vital service for the city’s youth population and provided funding to sustain the program essentials. As a result YO! Baltimore became a citywide strategy designed to help at-risk youth and young adults make healthy choices, earn academic credentials, and succeed in the workforce. At the breakfast event, Karen Sitnick, director of the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development, will announce the release of the updated Changing Minds Changing Lives report, which documents the positive results YO! Baltimore has achieved from 2000-2007. YO! Baltimore participants are continuing to obtain academic credentials, employment with increasing wages, and are changing behaviors to avoid returning to the criminal justice system. This event will take place at the YO! Westside Center at 1510 W. Lafayette Avenue (Gilmor Street entrance) at 8:00 a.m. | |||||