TO: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
FROM: Patricia W. Thomas, Personnel Director
DATE: April 12, 2000
A Council Member requested information about
follow-up activity relating to Town employment of at-risk youth.
Specific interest
began about two years ago with Chapel Hill and Carrboro Boards
addressing, through an ad-hoc committee, recreation opportunities available to
at-risk youth. Employment was one
component that the Committee on Recreation for At-Risk Youth considered to be
important, and is the focus of this summary report.
Community Development funds for hiring youth: Town Community Development funds include
opportunities for employing youth. For
about six years, the Police Department’s Crime Prevention Officer and the
Community Development Planner have worked with Personnel Department staff to
recruit and hire youth for summer jobs from the Northside, Pine Knolls and public housing neighborhoods. Although communications and recruitment
efforts have been extensive, the program has had only mixed success, with very
few applicants and placements.
A small amount of funding remains available for use
this summer and these staff continue to look for ways to recruit and hire
eligible youth in these programs.
Other Town positions where teens are hired: The Town has positions for
which teens under the age of 18 apply and are often hired, either during the
summer or throughout the year. These
are:
These and other positions for which teens could be
hired sometimes go unfilled because there are no applicants, teen or adult,
despite extensive recruitment efforts.
In past years, traditional positions for teenagers had included summer day camp counselors and summer laborers. However, we are aware of the potential liabilities to the Town of having teenagers remaining in charge when an adult counselor must attend to a participant’s emergency. Also, the N.C. Department of Labor’s child labor laws prohibit youths from doing many jobs traditionally considered jobs for teens, such as operating power lawn mowers.
Apprenticeships: In the last 5 years the Town has hired
several apprentices under a program arranged through the N.C. Department of
Labor. Our apprenticeships in the last
five years have included positions in:
The Planning Department is currently exploring an apprenticeship in which the apprentice
would be working initially with the Planning Technician.
Limitations and concerns with hiring teen workers: The Town has a number of
vacancies for temporary positions but teens may not be able to be hired into
some of them. In general, when departments consider teenaged candidates,
departments must consider several factors including child labor laws, potential
school schedule difficulties with teen employees, Town liabilities and the
potential need for adult supervision of the teen.
On-going efforts: We
continue to recruit employees, including teens, to fill temporary positing
vacancies. Last week staff from the
Personnel Department and the Police Department’s Crime Prevention Officer met
with staffs from career counseling centers at both Chapel Hill High School and
East Chapel Hill High School; they discussed year-round and summer employment
possibilities, including the Town’s summer program funded with Community
Development monies. Interests
represented included career track students, students with special developmental
needs, and service-learning placements.
We will continue contacts in the future, including direct recruitment in
the schools.