NY To Create Nearly 500 Jobs For At-Risk Youth in Mid-Hudson

MID-HUDSON VALLEY, NY — Almost 500 jobs will be available for at-risk youth in the mid-Hudson Valley.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday that 492 jobs will be created in Poughkeepsie, Kingston, Newburgh and Middletown.

The announcement was made following a gun violence prevention community meeting for the mid-Hudson Valley area held in Middletown.

Cuomo said the state has a duty to protect children and other New Yorkers who are vulnerable to gun violence.

"This meeting in Middletown helped us agree on the right solutions for cities across the Hudson Valley that have been affected by this crisis," he said.

"By connecting with the local leaders who know their communities, we are able to determine the needs of every locality and allocate our resources accordingly," Cuomo said, "so we can be most effective in making communities across our state whole again."

The state will create 177 summer jobs for 15- to 24-year-old young people in the mid-Hudson Valley to keep them employed until the start of school in September.

New York will also partner with the local workforce development boards and community partners to provide job training, credentialing and career placement services to ultimately connect 315 at-risk youth to good-paying, permanent jobs.

Earlier this month, Cuomo kicked off a series of community meetings that will be held in emerging gun violence hot spots across the state, where state officials and community leaders can carve out initiatives to address the ongoing gun violence. The initiatives focus on engaging the most at-risk youth in cluster zones in employment and community activities, hiring new community-based gun violence interrupters, as well as assistance for mental health and substance use disorders.

Cuomo issued an executive order declaring gun violence a disaster emergency to stem the tide of "carnage." The strategy treats gun violence as a public health crisis.

Besides creating the 492 jobs, the community meeting also came up with the following step to combat gun violence:

• Establishing summer programs for youth, including more than 45 activities at Minnewaska, Fort Montgomery and other state parks across the upper Hudson Valley this summer.
• Hiring new violence interveners to work at existing community intervention programs.
• Expanding community services and assistance for mental health support, substance abuse treatment and family crisis intervention.

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