File #: Res 0998-2007    Version: * Name: Administration to increase Job Training Participant programs such as the Parks Opportunity Program to include additional City agencies and job titles, and to enhance the program by providing program participants 12 month positions.
Type: Resolution Status: Filed
Committee: Committee on General Welfare
On agenda: 8/22/2007
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: Resolution calling upon the Administration to increase Job Training Participant programs such as the Parks Opportunity Program to include additional City agencies and job titles, and to enhance the program by providing program participants 12 month positions, intensive case management services and meaningful educational and training opportunities.
Sponsors: Helen D. Foster, Gale A. Brewer, Leroy G. Comrie, Jr., Inez E. Dickens, Letitia James, John C. Liu, Darlene Mealy, David I. Weprin, Sara M. Gonzalez
Council Member Sponsors: 9

Res. No. 998

 

Resolution calling upon the Administration to increase Job Training Participant programs such as the Parks Opportunity Program to include additional City agencies and job titles, and to enhance the program by providing program participants 12 month positions, intensive case management services and meaningful educational and training opportunities. 

 

By Council Members Foster, Brewer, Comrie, Dickens, James, Liu, Mealy, Weprin and Gonzalez

 

                     Whereas, The Parks Opportunity Program (“POP”), a Job Training Participant (“JTP”) program that pays wages to welfare recipients who work for the Parks Department for six month periods, is a highly effective tool for assisting low-income New Yorkers to make the transition to self-sufficiency; and

                     Whereas, A 2004 study by Community Voices Heard demonstrated that POP participants acquire more relevant job skills and feel greater confidence about their future employment prospects than their peers in unpaid workfare positions; and

                     Whereas, As a result of POP, welfare recipients engage in a range of activities essential to the maintenance of the City's parks, including cleaning beaches, picking up litter, raking leaves, repairing equipment, supervising playgrounds, patrolling parks, providing information to the public, and advising park-goers about rules and regulations; and

                     Whereas, The Mayor’s budget for fiscal year 2008 includes funding for 202 additional JTP slots, to be split between the Parks Department and the Department of Sanitation; and

                     Whereas, While expanding JTP positions to the Department of Sanitation is a positive development for the program, further expanding JTP slots into agencies such as the Health and Hospitals Corporation, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, the Department of Education, the Department of Environmental Protection, the New York City Housing Authority, the Human Resources Administration, and the Department of Transportation could better equip thousands of low-income New Yorkers with a variety of marketable skills; and

                     Whereas, It is important to provide program participants job security for a period of 12 months rather than the current six months, as a 12 month program will foster greater development of the skills and confidence necessary to find permanent employment; and

                     Whereas, Program participants should have the opportunity to access intensive case management services and meaningful educational and training opportunities to ensure their readiness to find permanent public or private sector jobs; now, therefore, be it

                     Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls upon the Administration to increase Job Training Participant programs such as the Parks Opportunity Program to include additional City agencies and job titles, and to enhance the program by providing program participants 12 month positions, intensive case management services and meaningful educational and training opportunities. 

LS 2495

8/1/07

FR