David Zelaya, 23, is working for the City of Glendale through the Youth Employment Alliance, with Glendale Water and Power reading meters in Glendale on Thursday, May 5, 2011. Zelaya has been working in GYA for 1.5 years, and reading meters for about six months. (Tim Berger/Staff photographer) |
Unemployed for more than a year while trying to support his wife and young son, 23-year-old David Zelaya had become desperate.
Unable to find a job and afford his own place, Zelaya and his family were forced to live with his mother, who provided financial support.
But that all changed after Zelaya entered a work program through the Glendale Youth Alliance, which he credits with helping him land a job with Glendale Water & Power as a full-time meter reader.
“Now I have my own place. I’m actually supporting a family,” he said. “It’s just so strange to me that I can do it. I feel so confident. I know I can pay the bills because I have a job.”
But the ability of the Glendale Youth Alliance to accept others like him could be severely curtailed since the grant funding that supported the program has dried up. Already, more than 800 people from Burbank to La Cañada Flintridge have applied for the summer work program, which might not happen without an alternate source of funding, organizers say.
“If there isn’t a summer program, that means there are going to be youth on the streets with nothing productive to do,” said program director Karine Grigoryan, who got her own start in the youth work program.
Since 1993, the Glendale Youth Alliance has provided jobs and employment training to more than 6,000 at-risk youth in Glendale, Burbank and La Cañada. Last year, the organization matched 350 low-income Burbank, Glendale and La Cañada residents ages 14 through 24 with summer jobs in local retail stores and business offices.
The nonprofit still has funding for the annual summer brush-clearance program, which would pay 45 younger teens to clear overgrown brush from the city's hillsides. But with the federal stimulus funding that powered the larger summer employment program for the last two years dried up, it is at risk of being canceled for the first time in more than 15 years.
The Glendale Youth Alliance is now looking to raise $100,000 from private and business donors to help fund a pared-down version that would serve roughly 100 participants.
“I think as a nonprofit, we need to stop relying so much on the government funding,” Grigoryan said. “I mean, this is a huge benefit to the entire community.”
Still, Glendale City Councilman Frank Quintero — who helped start the nonprofit — said he would like to see his city chip in more.
“I would love to have the city contribute more to this summer program because it’s the single most effective tool in bringing kids into the job market and keeping them out of trouble,” Quintero said. “They’re the kind of things that we need to be looking at when we do our budget.”
Year-round participants say the Glendale Youth Alliance has helped them explore career opportunities and find work during a brutal job market.
“Without GYA, I don’t think I would have had the opportunity to gain so many experiences,” said 18-year-old Burbank resident Daniel Friemark, who started in the summer program.
The nonprofit’s case workers also provided more than employment training, Friemark added, helping him find transportation options and a more suitable living arrangement.
“There’s a lot of competition, particularly with people who are already qualified,” he said.
