Subsidized Youth Employment Program
YouthWorks is a state-funded youth jobs program, which provides funds that communities use to pay wages to low-income youth for summer jobs in the public, non-profit, and private sectors. Commonwealth Corporation administers the program on behalf of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
The primary component of the YouthWorks program is subsidized employment. Participants are typically employed up to 30 hours per week over a six-week period during the summer. Hourly wages are required to be no less than the Massachusetts minimum wage.
Participation in this program is limited to youth aged 14–21 whose family income for the most recent six-month period does not exceed the annual equivalent of 200% of the federal poverty guidelines, and who are placed at risk by one or more risk factors.
Last year, YouthWorks provided employment to 4,260 low-income youth across Massachusetts. Of all youth served in the 2009 summer program, 86% were in-school, 6% had already graduated high school but were not enrolled in school, 3% were enrolled in a postsecondary program, and 2% were high school dropouts.
New Career Readiness Curriculum Guide
Empower Your Future is a life skills, career development and employability curriculum guide developed in collaboration with and funded by the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services (DYS). We are very pleased to be able to expand the reach of this Guide for use by public schools, agencies, non-profits and organizations who are committed to enhancing education, employment and positive outcomes for youth across the Commonwealth.
