YOUTH PROGRAM TO BE LAUNCHED; CAPE CHOSEN ONE OF EIGHT MISSOURI SITES

Cape Girardeau is one of eight locations in Missouri chosen to participate in new program called the Missouri Youth Services Conservation Corps program.

The six-month program is expected to begin next week and will be funded initially by a $600,000 grant from the federal Job Training Partnership Act.

It will be administered locally by the Southeast Missouri Private Industry Council, Inc., East Missouri Action Agency and the Cape Girardeau office of the Division of Family Services.

Representatives of the three organizations explained the program during Monday news conference in Cape Girardeau.

"Basically, (the program) is designed to give youths between ages 16-21 the skills and experience they need to find and hold a job," said Ronald Ruble, director of East Missouri Community Action Agency. "The ultimate goal of this program is to change attitudes."

To do that, the program will build a strong work ethic through the job portion of the program and help the youth meet their learning goals through the education program, he added.

"If they are high school drop-outs, the program will encourage them to at least get their GED, or go back to vo-tech school, or some other formalized training."

Ruble said youths will be taught basic skills usually taken for granted by the working public, such as the self-discipline to get up each day and go to work. In addition, they will also participate in activities designed to instill a sense of self-confidence and to work together as a group.

Ruble said the program is similar to the old Civilian Conservation Corps program instituted by the Franklin Roosevelt administration to put young men to work on community building projects during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

However, the current program will focus on less extensive community projects, he said. For example, in other areas of the state, work will consist of planting and maintenance of trees on public properties, restoration of park facilities, renovation of public facilities, trail construction on public land and rehabilitation of substandard housing.

The work in Cape Girardeau County will involve weatherization/energy conservation services for elderly, handicapped/disabled, and low-income residents at their homes, and at senior citizen nutrition centers and community centers in the county.

Mary McBride, executive director of the Southeast Missouri Private Industry Council, said Missouri is one of a minority of states that has not instituted a youth services conservation corps program.

"It has many faces and names in other states, but all are designed to give unemployed youth marketable skills and experience they need to compete in the job market," she said.

Educational development will a major component of this project, said Ruble.

"Corps members will be assessed by the Cape Girardeau Vocational-Technical School to determine their vocational, educational, occupational literacy and life skills level during the beginning of the program," he explained. "An individual plan for each youth will be established to allow them to develop positive attitudes toward themselves."

Ruble said priorities for selection to the program are: teen-aged parents with young children or teen-aged heads of households, high school dropouts, and youth at risk, who could become involved in the criminal justice system.

"We'll try to select youth that will most benefit from the program, with a target age around 19," Ruble added.

At least a fourth of the youth selected for the program in Cape Girardeau County will come from the Division of Family Services' FUTURES program. Family Services is providing $30,000 of the total $120,000 grant.

Dennis Reagan, local Cape Girardeau County Family Services Director, explained FUTURES is a program designed to try to break the welfare cycle for families now on welfare.

"Instead of being on welfare and food stamps, which are supported by the taxpayers, we want to help the youth in the FUTURES and MYSCC program become self-sufficient citizens in the community," said Reagan."

Ruble said the youths will work 35 hours a week and attend formal classes for five hours. While working and in class, they will be paid minimum wage, provided with a work uniform, tool box and tools, and transportation to and from their home each workday.

Adults specially trained to supervise and work with youth, and familiar with energy/weatherization installation services, will oversee the work of the corps.

Although the state legislature has only funded the program through June 30, McBride is optimistic the funding will be extended past that deadline. If so, she feels it could eventually receive additional matching federal funding. That would allow for expansion of the program to serve even more youths.

Reagan says money spent on the program is well spent. He calls it "preventative money" because it helps youths become tax-paying citizens in the community, and gets them and their families off the welfare merry-go-round. He said it is much cheaper to help unemployed youths obtain the skills needed to find and hold a job than for society to have to care for them later on.

McBride said the program is an effective way to reduce welfare costs to taxpayers.