MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Thousands of teens and young adults want summer jobs but only 1,000 will get them.
The deadline to apply for the city’s MPLOY program is this Saturday.
The city hopes to expand the program next year.
Young people between 14 and 21 years old can participate in the MPLOY summer program where they’ll receive training skills.
“They should do more to have more kids in activities such as these,” said Velma Bobo, a grandmother.
Unfortunately thousands of young people looking for work this summer will be turned away.
That`s not what Bobo wanted to hear.
“By working, that helps them to be able to participate in life, get along with others and just stay out of trouble,” she said.
The MPLOY summer program will teach young people those skills and more.
The city is spending two million dollars for the jobs program.
Council member Wanda Halbert says the need is greater than ever to put even more teens to work.
“I`m sure you can already imagine that I`m going to be joined with several other people, council members, to ask for an increase in the budget to, at minimum, double the number we`re aiming for now,” she said.
She hopes to help put between 2,000 and 3,000 teens to work next year.
In the past, Memphis employed 4,000 young people for the city`s summer youth program, but that stopped several years ago.
“Over the course of the years, we stripped that from them and I think we owe it to them to not just invest into this first stage of the summer youth program, but grow it and increase it even bigger than it is today,” Halbert said.
The youth services director says it’s important for the city to plan even earlier if it decides to offer this program next year.