Henry Street Campaigns for Summer Jobs in Albany
By Nicole Fogarty
Students from Henry Street’s Expanded Horizons College Success program got a real-life lesson in government when they joined with hundreds of other youth advocates at Youth Action Day 2016 on Monday in Albany where they lobbied for youth employment funding.
One Henry Street participant, 15-year-old Maqusi Modeste, was one of two emcees to speak at the rally, which drew a crowd of more than 400. Other Henry Street students — Tyler Correawhite, Jehryl Richards, Chi Chi Igboekwe, and Gabriella Marrero – met with Senator Daniel Squadron to discuss the importance of youth employment funding, both at Henry Street and across New York City.
Held at the statehouse and organized in part by United Neighborhood Houses and the Neighborhood Family Services Coalition, Youth Action Day rallied for increased funding for the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), which provides New York City youth between the ages of 14 and 24 with paid summer employment. Henry Street works with the Department of Youth and Community Development to place youth in summer internships, as well as provides workshops on finances, health, college and careers, and work readiness skills.
Following the rally, the Henry Street students met with elected officials, including New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, as well as legislative and executive staff to ask for an increase from $30 million to $48.2 million in the state budget for SYEP.
Talia DeRogatis, Public Policy and Community Engagement Liaison at Henry Street, accompanied the youth. “The day was really powerful because it showed these young people how capable they are of advocating for what they believe in. I think that government—and particularly state government—can feel inaccessible and intimidating, but these students’ made the choice to catch a 6 a.m. bus to discuss budget priorities with state legislators. Now that they’ve done it once, they all feel more than capable of doing it again and of engaging in politics at many different levels.”
