The New York Police Department has expanded this year’s youth summer-jobs program as part of a city-wide employment program for pandemic-related economic recovery.
The Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) is a six-week program that will provide 75,000 young people ages 14-21 years old across the city with paid, part-time jobs with partnering employers, as announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYC Department of Youth & Community Development (DYCD) Commissioner Bill Chong.
“When I say recovery for all of us, I mean all of us, especially young New Yorkers,” the mayor said. “The Summer Youth Employment Program is back and providing teens and young adults with a paycheck and the skills they need to build a stronger future for themselves and our City.”
Since 2013, the SYEP program has more than doubled in participants, and the city’s investment into the program has gone from $21 million at the start to $134 million.
David Fischer, Executive Director of the NYC Center for Youth Employment said, “SYEP is both a beloved NYC summer institution and a powerful intervention to help put young New Yorkers on a path to career success. Over the past eight years, the program has doubled in size, built stronger connections to year-round learning and high-growth economic sectors, and targeting services toward those youth who will benefit most from a quality summer work experience. This year promises to be the biggest and best in SYEP’s long history.”
The NYPD will also be taking part in the program, offering opportunities for more than 750 youths – up from last year when there were roughly 400 openings, NYPD officials said.
The program aims to employ up to 3 youths for each of the city’s 77 precincts, including special divisions such as the aviation unit, harbor unit, and legal bureau. Officials hope it will provide mentoring and job experience, and will ultimately lead to greater recruitment numbers to fight a rise of violent crime in the city. City leaders and law enforcement officials also hope the program will build stronger relationships with the community.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Community Partnerships Chauncey Parker said the program, along with other programs like one to renovate basketball courts with assets seized during criminal cases, are important for building partnerships with the city’s youth, especially when the city is fighting a crimewave.
“They’ve never been more important than they are at this moment,” Parker said.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said of the program: “As police, we often encounter young people who have had limited options. Part of our calling is to help kids make better choices, expand opportunities, and help them reach their fullest potential. New York City kids are the future, and this program brings young people to every precinct, PSA, transit district and specialty unit where they will help improve our City.”
Domingo Corporan, one of this year’s participants in the program, will be working with NYPD’s Community Affairs Bureau this summer shadowing and assisting officers. He hopes the experience will help him in his goal to becoming a police officer.
Corporan believes the program will attract more people like him to law enforcement. According to the Washington Journal, only 14,500 people signed up for the NYPD entrance exam in June this year, one thousand less than the number in 2019.
