Sen. Felder Asks Mayor to Reinstate Summer Youth Employment Program

After the Mayor quietly cancelled the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP, or Youth Corps), Senator Felder joined Senator Persaud in condemning the decision to scrap the popular summer employment program effecting 75,000 New York City teens from low income families.

 “We all understand the health and safety concerns,” explained Senator Felder. “We are, however, deeply concerned by the complete lack of alternate planning or modified programming being presented for thousands of NYC teens.”

 Despite facing budgetary deficits, NYS maintained level funding in the 2020 budget for SYEP, including $45 million for the program statewide. In a strong response from the state, 43 state lawmakers signed on to express their shock and disappointment, and call on the administration to find a way to use those millions in allocated state funds to help low income teens who have come to rely on the program.

 “We are all dealing with a lot of uncertainty right now, but we all agree that what we need right now is resourcefulness, optimism and the best use of limited funds. For me, that always means investing in our children. Why would the city choose this time to force non-profits to lay-off staff adding to the unemployment rolls rather than allowing them to do what they do best and move forward with planning alternative ways to help people through this unprecedented challenge? This decision was short sighted and I hope that the administration will correct it immediately,” Senator Felder said.