Tierney sees results of teen workforce program in Lynn

LYNN – Determined to check the pulse of federally funded teen job development programs, U.S. Rep. John F. Tierney visited a Lynn career center Tuesday accompanied by Jane Oates, assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration.As representative of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan for improving the nation’s workforce, Oates got a first-hand look at the Lynn Career Center at 181 Union St. and the programs it houses.Tierney and Oates engaged in candid discussions with the teenagers enrolled in the programs, hearing accounts of enhanced math scores in school, guidance for college plans and supervision as the youth earn money while getting a taste of job responsibility. Mostly, they listened as the teenagers talked about the opportunities afforded by programs like FirstJobs and the Food Project.”These kids are so grateful to have a job and to learn,” said Mary Sarris, executive director of the North Shore Workforce Investment Board, which partners with the career centers in Lynn, Salem and Gloucester.Sarris described the youth as enthusiastic, noting that on a recent blistering hot day, eight of them were already hard at work on their computers in a church work site at 8 a.m. when she arrivedEnglish High School junior class member Ivan Ventura, 16, said the summer job program allowed him to gain skills in interviewing, writing and gain a sense of where he would like to attend college. “I have a few in mind,” he said. “BC, BU, Harvard and UMass Boston. “Maybe I’ll go to medical school. I’ve been visiting colleges. They let me do that here, which I wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.” 14-year-old Jefferson Akers said the summer program has helped polish his sagging math skills and introduced him to reading the classics, both accomplishments designed to help him enroll in St. John’s Prep.”We strongly stress math every day,” said Arthur Akers, director of the College Application Education Project (CAEP), which has been contracted to mesh with the summer program in Lynn.Mark Whitmore, manager of the North Shore Career Center, said more than 15,000 people have sought services during the past year at the three centers. Approximately 450 teenagers have been given summer jobs through the centers, mostly through the FirstJobs program, working with private sector businesses and non-profit organizations.The teenagers perform a wide array of jobs, from painting and landscaping to office clerical duties. “We teach them how to dress and act during a job interview and to first identify their areas of interest,” Whitmore said.Many of the youth learned to grow crops through the Food Project and sell them at area farmers’ markets. “One of the kids told me he had never eaten a fresh vegetable before this,” said Tierney, who quickly put the teenager at ease with a story of his own childhood. “I told him he was doing better than I did because growing up, with both parents working, I only had canned vegetables.”The teenagers asked Oates to fight for funding to ensure that the summer jobs program continues.The stop in Lynn was among three visits Tierney and Oates paid Tuesday to workforce development sites, the others in Danvers and North Andover. President Obama has emphasized that members of Congress personally witness the federally funded programs in their districts in order to determine whether taxpayer dollars – especially those from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) are being well spent.