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Caribbean Life, Mar. 31-Apr. 6, 2022
NYC’s #1 Source for Political & Election News
Adams rolls out vocational training program for foster care youth
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 Tuesday 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
V-CRED – 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
(ACS) Commissioner Jess Dannhauser announcing new V-CRED
vocatiional and apprenticeship program at CUNY’s Kingsborough
Community College. March 29, 2022.
Screenshot By Ethan Stark-Miller
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