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South Bend Redevelopment Commission <br />Regular Meeting –March 5, 2010 <br /> <br />6. NEW BUSINESS <br /> <br />A. Public Hearing <br /> <br />(1) continued… <br /> <br />We sent a communication a few weeks ago. <br />We’re on the other end of the spectrum: we <br />work with the young folks in the community <br />that have become out of school youth for <br />various reasons, either they drop out to get <br />their GED and didn’t complete it, or they <br />dropped out, got their GED, but got no <br />training after that, so they are still not job <br />ready. <br /> <br />What our program has been doing for the last <br />seven years, we’ve been assisting youth with <br />various soft skills: interviewing, mentoring, <br />encouraging them to set goals and reach <br />those goals within the school setting. <br />However, this year we have gone beyond <br />that. We’ve joined YouthBuild USA. Now, <br />in addition to soft skills, we offer them <br />accreditation, actual certifications in job <br />skills: construction, information <br />technology/computer area. If they haven’t <br />received their GED, we help them to get their <br />GED as well as become job ready. <br />Concurrently they receive their GED as well <br />as training to become certified in IT or <br />construction. While they receive their <br />training they receive a $50/week stipend so <br />they have travel money and don’t have to <br />steal a pop. Our goal is to keep them from <br />becoming on the other end of the spectrum. <br />One of the gentlemen said, if they don’t have <br />hope and they don’t have money they end up <br />stealing. They end up becoming ex-cons, <br />unfortunately. Our goal is to keep that from <br />happening by giving them an opportunity to <br />become job ready, to learn the skills, and to <br /> 12 <br /> <br />