16
COURIER LIFE, APRIL 1-7, 2022
BY ETHAN STARK-MILLER
Continuing his role out of initiatives
to jumpstart the city’s
economy coming out of the coronavirus
pandemic, Mayor Eric
Adams announced on March 29
a new vocational and apprenticeship
program for youth 16 to
24 living or coming out of foster
care.
“For those young people who
have been in foster care or had
contact with the juvenile justice
system, instead of leaving them
there, we need to be there for
them to give them the support,”
Adams said. “This new vocational
training and apprenticeship
program is going to help our
young people prepare for good
jobs and a bright future. These
programs are crucial because
you can start out with a good
job, a good career, and then it’s a
pathway to what you want to do.”
The new program —
called VCRED
— will be a partnership
between the city, the W.K. Kellogg
Foundation, the City University
of New York (CUNY) and
the private sector. The event took
place on the campus of CUNY’s
Kingsborough Community College,
where Adams was joined by
CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos
Rodríguez, Administration for
Children’s Services (ACS) Commissioner
Jess Dannhauser and
two young people who’ve already
been through the program.
Echoing a comment Adams
made earlier about the importance
of “upstream” – or preemptive
– solutions, Dannhauser said
that includes supporting and
sticking with the city’s youth.
“Upstream also includes
sticking with our young people.
when we’re in a relationship
with young people,” Dannhauser
said. “We want to do right by
them and make sure we don’t
drop them at the most important
parts of their life.”
The program will start with
45 participants for each of its
first two years who will take
trades courses at Kingsborough,
Adams said. These classes will
train them for professional certification,
all with the goal of landing
them a job in one year.
The program has five vocational
tracts: information technology,
electrician’s helper, certified
nursing assistant and EKG
Technician, pharmacy technician,
and building trades.
“All of the new growth you’re
seeing in the IT industry in the
city, these young people can
move into those employment opportunities,”
Adams said. “And
we need the new tech industry
to come to our campuses and see
the young people we have here.
Don’t recruit outside our city
when you have great homegrown
product right here in the city of
New York.”
Antoinette McKnight, one of
the students who just finished
the program, just became a certified
medical technician and
will now study to become a paramedic.
McKnight said the program
has been vital to achieving
her dream of becoming an FDNY
paramedic, something she’s
wanted since she was a little girl.
“Without this program I don’t
see how it would be possible, as
of right now, because I’m in foster
care and I just left the system,
so I’m on my own,” McKnight
said. “So, it’s bettering my
future.”
The program, Dannhauser
said, is funded by a Kellogg
Foundation grant that breaks
down to $200,000 each year for
the next three years. But, Adams
said his administration intends
to increase funds for the program
in the next budget cycle.
Mayor Eric Adams with Administration for Children’s Services Commissioner
Jess Dannhauser announcing new V-CRED vocatiional and apprenticeship program
at CUNY’s Kingsborough Community College. Screenshot
For the youth!
Adams rolls out vocational training
program for foster care youth
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