THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

                    THE CLINTON-GORE ADMINISTRATION:
                AN OPPORTUNITY AGENDA FOR AMERICAN YOUTH
                      Saturday, February 19, 2000

TODAY, IN HIS WEEKLY RADIO ADDRESS, PRESIDENT CLINTON WILL ANNOUNCE $223 MILLION IN YOUTH OPPORTUNITY GRANTS TO 36 COMMUNITIES: Today, the President and Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman will announce the award of $223 million in Youth Opportunity Grants to 36 communities to provide education and job training opportunities to at-risk young people. The FY2000 budget provided $250 million for the Youth Opportunity grants ($27 million is reserved for technical assistance and other youth initiatives), representing the first installment of the five-year, $1.375 billion Youth Opportunity (YO) Movement. This national effort to leverage the combined resources of business, the non-profit sector, prominent public figures, and government at all levels aims to help at-risk youth acquire the skills and experience to transition into successful adulthood, careers, and higher education. President Clinton launched the Youth Opportunity Movement on his New Markets Trip last July.

YOUTH OPPORTUNITY GRANTS TARGET OUT-OF-SCHOOL, AT-RISK YOUTH: Although the youth unemployment rate is at a 30 year low, too many youths still face the danger of chronic unemployment or under-employment. This year's grants:

• will serve approximately 44,000 youth ages 14-21;
• emphasize placing youth in private sector jobs along with efforts to keep them in school, encourage enrollmentment in college, and provide work experience in community-service projects.
• concentrate on developing the "total person" by providing a wide variety of support services and offering long-term follow-up services;
• focus on youth who live in Empowerment Zones, Empowerment Communities and other high-poverty urban, rural and Native American communities;
• range in size from $4 million to $11 million each.

THESE GRANTS ARE A KEY PART OF A "YOUTH OPPORTUNITY AGENDA" THAT PRESIDENT CLINTON HAS PROPOSED TO INCREASE BY MORE THAN $1.3 BILLION IN HIS FY2001 BUDGET.

• Youth Opportunity Grants. This new initiative (described above) that President Clinton signed into law only last year has a proposed increase of 50 percent to $375 million in the FY2001 budget.
• GEAR UP. GEAR UP is a nationwide initiative to encourage more disadvantaged young people to have high expectations, stay in school, study hard, and take the right courses to go to and succeed in college. GEAR UP is funded at $200 million in FY 2000, enough to provide services to over 750,000 students. The FY 2001 budget provides a 62.5% increase to $325 million, enough to provide services to 1.4 million students.
• TRIO. The TRIO programs seek to motivate and prepare students to go to and stay in college. The FY 2001 budget provides $725 million for TRIO, an increase of $80 million to help provide assistance to over 760,000 students, 37,000 more than in 2000.
• Youth Training Formula Grants. In addition to the increased funding mentioned above in his FY2001 budget for the Youth Opportunity grants, the President also has proposed a $22 million increase to $1.022 billion for the Youth Activities formula grant program. This level will provide job training and summer job opportunities to about 612,000 disadvantaged young people.
• Youthbuild. The Youthbuild program is targeted to 16-24 year old high school dropouts and provides disadvantaged young adults with education and employment skills through rehabilitating and building housing for low-income and homeless people. The program also helps to expand the supply of housing in these categories. Funded at $42.5 million, the Youthbuild programs will provides opportunities for approximately 2,000 trainees in 2000. The FY2001 budget increases funding by 76 percent to $75 million, enough to serve approximately 3,330 trainees.
• Job Corps. Job Corps is the nation's largest and most comprehensive residential education and job training program targeted at impoverished young people. The FY2001 budget increases Job Corps funding by $35 million, bringing the total budget to $1.393 billion.
• College Completion Challenge Grants. The FY2001 budget creates a new initiative within the TRIO program called College Completion Challenge Grants (CCCG). Although college enrollment rates have risen, 37 percent of students that go on to post-secondary school drop out before they get a certificate or a degree [Source: U.S. Department of Education, The Condition of Education: 1999]. The problem is especially acute for minorities: 29 percent of African Americans and 31 percent of Hispanics drop out of college after less than one year, compared to 18 percent of whites. The CCCG program is designed to address this problem with a comprehensive approach including pre-freshman summer programs, support services and increased grant aid to students. This $35 million initiative will improve the chances of success for nearly 18,000 students.
• Dual Degree Programs for Minority-Serving Institutions. The FY 2001 budget proposes a new program to increase opportunities for students at minority-serving institutions. Students would receive two degrees within five years: one from a minority-serving institution, and one from a partner institution in a field in which minorities are underrepresented. This new $40 million program will serve an estimated 3,000 students.
• Pell Grants. The Pell Grant program provides grants to economically disadvantaged young people to help pay the cost of a postsecondary education. The maximum Pell Grant in FY2000 is $3,300. The President's FY2001 budget increases the maximum to $3,500, more than 50 percent larger than the maximum grant in 1993, to make a college education more affordable for the nearly 4 million Pell Grant recipients. Funding for the Pell Grant program is increased by over $716 million, bringing the total Pell Grant appropriation to $8.356 billion.
• SEOG. SEOG, the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program, provides campus-based grant assistance to needy undergraduate students. Generally, this program supplements the aid students receive from other sources, and leverages institutional aid by at least one dollar for every three federal dollars. The FY2001 budget provides $691 million for SEOG, a $60 million increase, the largest increase in 10 years. An estimated 1.2 million students (over 60,000 more than in 2000) will receive awards in 2001.
• Work Study. Work Study provides students the opportunity to work their way through college. The FY 2000 budget achieved the goal of giving one million students the opportunity to participate in Work Study. The FY2001 budget includes $1.011 billion for Work Study, an increase of $77 million to continue this commitment to serve one million students.

YOUTH OPPORTUNITY GRANTS IN ACTION

Baltimore, MD: Grant Amount: $11 million.

• Recipient: The City's Department of Employment Development along with partners including Johns Hopkins University, Mercy Hospital, Sinai Hospital, Baltimore Development Corporation, Maryland Business Roundtable, and many other organizations.
• Youth Served: 2,400 youths in Baltimore's Empowerment Zone, where six out of ten youngsters are raised in extreme poverty.
• The Plan: Four neighborhood "satellite centers," two full-service Youth Opportunity Centers, and a single One-Stop Career Center will provide the services. Youth Ambassadors will recruit young people in need. Employment Advocates at each center and at local high schools will guide trainees into the array of programs available, including: computer literacy classes for every youth; GED programs, instruction in college preparation, career counseling, skills training, internships, job placement, career-track employment and 24-month follow-up services.

Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota: Grant Amount: $4 million

• Recipient: The Oglala Sioux Tribe in collaboration with Oglala Lakota College, SuAnne Big Crow Boys and Girls Club, Oglala Sioux Housing, Oglala Nation Education Coalition and other entities.
• Youth Served: This project intends to serve at least 750 youth on the 7,000 square mile Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
• The Plan: The awardees will establish Yug'an Ojanjanglepi (yew ghan oh zhan zhan glay pee) (YO) which means "opening the windows." YO will assist participants to achieve positive outcomes in job placement and retention, high school completion and college enrollment. YO will establish Hub Youth Opportunity Centers in Pine Ridge, Kyle and Martin with satellites in Wanblee, Wounded Knee/Manderson, Oglala, Batesland, Allen and Porcupine. YO will provide drug and alcohol counseling, mentoring, wellness education as well as tutoring and other services to keep students in school. Additional program elements will include work experience, job shadowing, occupational skills training, tutoring, mentoring and support services.

Los Angeles, CA: Grant Amount: $12 million.

• Recipient: The City's Community Development Department along with partners, such as the Workforce Investment Board, LAPD, LA Unified School Dist., McDonalds, Ticketmaster, UPS, LA Community College District, Family Development Network, and other organizations.
• The Plan: The initiative will expand the already existing Kulick Youth Opportunities program in Watts and add a second location on the East Side of the City's Empowerment Zone LA's YO program introduces each young person to an array of services covering more than 70 different topics in five core areas: education and career planning; job readiness; personal skills; health; and fitness. Emphasis will be placed on five career pathways, all of which lead to growth sectors in Los Angeles: travel/tourism/hospitality; manufacturing; entertainment/new media; health/biotechnology; and transportation. Youngsters will gain entr?e to these fields through tours, interviews, job shadowing, and occupational training and paid work experience. Support services will also assist trainees, including psychological counseling, drug testing, sealing of juvenile records, and intensive follow-up services, to name but a few. Local businesses have committed to hire 1,400 YO participants.

YOUTH OPPORTUNITY GRANT AWARDEES

NAME & SERVICE AREA - URBAN (24) STATE FUNDING

Birmingham / Jefferson County Job Trng (Birmingham)     AL     5,000,000
Pima County, Tucson                                     AZ     7,000,000
City of Los Angeles(Watts & Eastside of EZ)             CA    11,000,000
San Diego Workforce Partnership                         CA     7,000,000
PIC of San Francisco                                    CA     7,000,000
City and County of Denver (Denver EC)                   CO     5,000,000
Capitol Region Workforce Dev. BD   (City of Hartford)   CT     7,000,000
D.C. Depart. of Employment Services                     DC     8,000,000
Hillsborough County, Tampa                              FL     6,000,000
Louisville and Jefferson Counties WIB ( Louisville)     KY     7,000,000
Brockton Area PIC                                       MA     4,500,000
Economic Development Industrial Corp., Boston(EZ)       MA     5,000,000
City of Detroit                                         MI    11,000,000
Office of Employment Devel., Baltimore                  MD    11,000,000
Full Employment Council, Inc., Kansas City              MO     4,000,000
Buffalo & Erie County PIC                               NY     7,948,615
Work Systems, Inc., Portland                            OR     5,000,000
City of Cleveland                                       OH     7,000,000
WIB of Philadelphia (City of Philadelphia)              PA     5,000,000
City of Memphis                                         TN     6,500,000
Houston-Galveston Area Council                          TX    11,000,000
Alamo Workforce Dev.  Board(San Antonio, Bexar          TX    11,000,000
Seattle - King County PIC                               WA     4,500,000
PIC of Milwaukee County (City of Milwaukee)             WI     6,000,000

NAME & SERVICE AREA - NATIVE AMERICAN (6) STATE FUNDING

Oglala Sioux Tribe, Pine Ridge                          SD     4,000,000
     (Pine Ridge Indian Reservation)
Cook Inlet Tribal Council (State of Alaska)             AK     8,000,000
Navajo Nation, Window Rock                              AZ    10,300,000
     Navajo Nation Arizona, New Mexico & Utah)
California Indiana Manpower Consortium                  CA     4,000,000
     (Statewide CA, Douglas / Carson,  Nevada)
Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Towaoc, CO                      CO     2,000,000
     (Towaoc, Montezuma, CO; Montezuma Creek, San Juan, UT)
Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa & Chippewa                MI       783,620
     (Antrim, Benzie, Charlevoix, Leelanau, Manistee Counties)

NAME & SERVICE AREA - RURAL (6) STATE FUNDING

Southeastern Arkansas Economic Dev. (Chicot and Desha)  AR     4,998,216
Imperial Cnty. Off. of E & T.                           CA     5,000,000
     (Brawley, Calipatria, Niland, Imperial Counties)
Georgia Department of Labor   (Albany, GA)              GA     3,653,574
State of Hawaii (Maui County & Island of Molokai)       HI     2,186,099
PIC / SDA-83 Incorporated, Monroe (EC)                  LA     5,000,000
Lumberton River Council (Robeson County)                NC     5,000,000

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