Using money scraped together from his Legislature staffing allotment, Sen. Wayne James recently hired 25 students, now under the care and supervision of the Department of Human Services, for a Christmas employment program.
Boys and girls between the ages of 15 and 19 have been placed with local retail establishments, service businesses, and non-profit organizations and will work for a two-week period at minimum wage, beginning Saturday. Students were found from the various Department of Human Services programs: the foster care system; Virgin Islands Behavioral Services, which houses its teenaged student-residents in group homes; the Juvenile Justice Program; and the Youth Rehabilitation Center.
“These are the children who oftentimes get bypassed for summer jobs," James said. "But they, too, need to experience the value of earning an honest dollar. And the sooner they learn that priceless lesson, the better off they will be."
James began discussing his ideas for a Christmas employment program with Human Services about two months ago. The goal was to give the children a total work experience, James said, beginning with the application process, followed by job interviews, then a mini-workshop on professionalism, and, finally, a presentation on personal finances, during which the children, with supervision and help from Human Services, will open savings accounts with local banks.
The jobs — ranging from sales positions to maintenance to computer technology and food preparation — will start at the beginning of the Christmas vacation and run until early January.
Financing for James’ Youth Christmas Employment Program will come from the senator’s personal staffing allotment. All the kids will make minimum wage. Because their salaries are fully paid, the businesses have an incentive to take them on as temporary workers and have little to lose by training them and showing them the ropes.
Some of the kids will be helping with maintenance work, others with landscaping and yard work. And some will be helping at the Christmas Festival "Mas Camp" before the Children’s Parade and Adult Parade, helping the troupes assemble their costumes.
"We interviewed all the children and tried to place them with jobs as close to their interests and ability levels as possible," James said.
This is the third time James has spent his office allotment on temporary youth employment. Over the summer, he hired 52 kids through the Legislature’s regular summer youth employment program.
Every senator gets an allotment for the program, but James added to that allotment to hire more than the usual number. Then in September he hired 20 young men and women incarcerated at the St. Croix Youth Rehabilitation Center to work for two weeks on maintenance projects at St. Croix’s public schools.
“I staffed my office very efficiently,” James said. “And with the savings realized as a result of having a personal staff of three persons, I have been able to spread those savings across the community by hiring 100 people since taking office."
