City Council approves new job training, paid internships for Sacramento youth
Sacramento (June 14, 2022) The Sacramento City Council Tuesday unanimously approved a $15-million plan to provide job training, paid internships and workforce readiness training to thousands of Sacramento residents — most between the ages of 16 and 30.
The plan, on track to start running in September, focuses on the most economically marginalized and at-risk young people in Sacramento and builds off the lessons learned and successes achieved with the City’s workforce training plan previously funded by CARES Act federal stimulus funds. It will include intensive job coaching, paid internships and job placement in the construction trades, the public sector, urban agriculture and clean, high-growth job sectors. Neighborhood career navigators working out of public libraries will help connect people to services, training and jobs.
“The city’s workforce development investments have the rare opportunity, with one-time funding, to change the economic trajectory of many of our marginalized and vulnerable communities that are still struggling to maintain,” said Kriztina Palone, the City of Sacramento’s Workforce Development Manager, during her presentation to council. Each council member weighed in before the vote thanking Palone and other staff for their hard work.
Workforce Development Manager Kriztina Palone walks through the goals of the program framework
Approximately $7 million dollars for the workforce plan will come from the state’s new Californians For All program, which aims to provide pathways and opportunities for young people to work in public service and in the non-profit sector. About $5 million previously set aside from the mid-year budget will go toward career exposure, life skills, and training, case management, and paid teen internships overseen by the City such as #SacYouthWorks and Thousand Strong. Another $2.75 million in remaining American Rescue Plan funding will be used for skill assessments, adult retraining, and placement for adults.
Mayor Steinberg speaks with students at the Luther Burbank Urban Garden program, a CTE pathway that is unique in Sacramento City Unified and has been part of Thousand Strong since 2018.
The workforce program did not require funding from the “status quo” budget for 2022-2023 also before the City Council for approval Tuesday.
Unlike many other local governments, Sacramento did not have to make significant budget cuts during the pandemic. A combination of Measure U dollars and federal stimulus funds allowed the city to maintain services and invest back into the community. Nearly $300 million dollars of programming, investments, and funding has been allocated for affordable housing, getting people off the streets, violence prevention, job training and development, the creative economy and youth since 2018.
City staff Tuesday highlighted the ongoing challenges for people in the job market that the COVID pandemic has amplified. Barriers like lack of access to broadband internet, lack of technology education, increased stress from health/mental-health-related conditions, job loss from companies going out of business, and limited availability of job training for types of jobs that are growing are common and continue to put stress on the local economy.
“The more capacity we have to invest in young people, the more we will be able to grow and expand what we know works. And that’s our goal,” said Mayor Darrell Steinberg in closing.
City staff will be issuing requests for proposals over the summer to select the best training providers.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s team also earned $150,000 grant from the National League of Cities that is working over the next two years to better align the various elements of the public school, community college, and community programming to create more ways for young people to learn and understand their career opportunities. This project is being overseen by Senior Policy Advisor Nicole Cuellar.
