In an ultra-competitive job market, job-seekers who often are the first to fall through the cracks are the youth and underprivileged. With the summer season in full swing and many such youths on the job market, the Gulf Coast Workforce Board is making efforts to change that.

Now in its second year, the Summer Jobs for Youth program is making available thousands of jobs in the greater Houston area, including many in Tomball, Magnolia and Waller to just those types of job hunters.

The program is available to anyone 16-24 years of age living in the 13-county Houston-Galveston Area Council (HGAC) region who is eligible to legally work in the United States and whose family currently receives government benefits or assistance, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), ChiP, WIC, free or reduced school lunches, Medicaid, Public Housing Assistance or whose family’s annual income falls below designated levels.

Sue Cruver, Public Information Officer for Gulf Coast Workforce Board, explained that WorkForce Solutions enlists contractors who work with employees to identify job openings. Those openings are then matched with qualifying applicants identified by the Workforce Board and placed into appropriate jobs.

“It’s a combination of us finding the jobs, having a number of contractors, and having qualified young people,” Cruver said. “Employers don’t have to do anything more than provide a good work opportunity and supervision.”

Cruver said Workforce Solutions handles the payments and salary, benefits and agreements with the contractors.

The jobs are full-time, she added, and typically involve non-profit and community based work such as “green jobs,” working in offices, libraries and some manual labor. The pay rate starts at the minimum wage of $7.50 per hour.

“We’ve found it to be a very valuable program, exposing them to new job opportunities that maybe they’ve never considered,” Cruver added.

The program is funded by HGAC, which this year allocated more than $13 million for the program. This year, the Workforce Board is working to fill positions for 4,680 jobs.

Cruver said the program is geared to giving local youth an opportunity “more than just getting some spending money.”

She said those who utilize the program are gaining valuable work experience that could be used to enhance a resume and to give local youth who may not have the opportunity otherwise to learn the lesson of a hard day’s work.

“They (the workers) use some of the money (they earn) to help their families,” she said, “save for education, school clothes. A lot of the kids, in many ways the experience changed their whole attitude.”

Cruver said available jobs this year filling up fast and that even if a job cannot be identified for an applicant for this particular program, the Workforce Board will help them find some kind of employment.

She also encouraged local businesses to make available positions for local youth.

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