Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin on Tuesday officially launched his signature youth employment campaign with a cleanup event alongside the Connecticut River in Hartford.
The Youth Service Corps has garnered $5.5 million in funding to provide part-time work for 200 underserved city youths. The money has come from the federal government, the state and the private sector, which kicked in $2.2 million in donations.
The group will largely focus on blight remediation, home repair and environmental stewardship in the city’s north end.
Bronin has said that high unemployment in parts of Hartford created the need for the group, which is modeled after citizen work programs launched in the wake of the Great Depression.
“I believe that unemployment for young men and women in our cities is one of our greatest and most urgent challenges, and I’m incredibly grateful to our partners for stepping up in a huge way to meet that challenge,” Bronin said in a statement Tuesday. “Giving young people a chance to earn a paycheck while contributing to their community is a powerful way to build safer, stronger neighborhoods.”
