New Job Training Program to Stem Gun Violence

CWE and community partners will train and place 2,400 at-risk young people into career-track jobs.

New York City’s communities of color have significantly borne the brunt of recent economic crises. They have suffered from higher rates of death during the pandemic and sustained higher unemployment in the resulting recession. For decades, members of these chronically disenfranchised communities have been more likely to die from gun violence as well.

To stem the gun violence in these neighborhoods, and begin to give residents resources to reduce their own risk, New York is investing millions of dollars across the state in workforce service providers so that unemployed young adults have viable employment and career opportunities. In New York City, the new program will be implemented by the Consortium for Worker Education and a network of neighborhood-level partners, funded under the New York State Department of Labor.

"Gun violence is a horror no one should have to live through, and yet too many New Yorkers do. It is time we put an end to this epidemic," New York Governor Kathy Hochul said at a press conference earlier this month. "We have to give young people hope and let them know their lives have meaning, which starts with creating jobs as well as more access to career training, working closely together with community organizations, and boosting gun violence intervention programs."

The core of the NYS-CWE Governor’s Gun Violence Prevention for Young Adults Workforce Preparation and Employment Initiative are the workforce preparation services that CWE and its community-based partners have been delivering to New Yorkers for decades. The new program focuses on providing these services to young adults in neighborhoods with high rates of gun violence. Over the next year, CWE and its partners will place 2,400 residents ages 18-24, who are out of school and unemployed or underemployed, into good-paying jobs.

“The initiative will bring new services to the community, and enhance existing services, to engage people who could be in the crossfire, or know people who are involved,” says Beverley O'Donnell, Deputy Executive Director of the Consortium for Worker Education. “It's about giving them different paths to keep them outside those activities.”

"We have to give young people hope and let them know their lives have meaning, which starts with creating jobs as well as more access to career training, working closely together with community organizations, and boosting gun violence intervention programs," Governor Hochul said.

For the initiative, CWE is working with current and new community partners, including faith-based organizations and violence interrupters, who help New Yorkers most at risk of becoming involved in gun violence.

CWE partners will develop unique strategies tailored to reach the young people this program will serve, including through local schools, churches, and neighborhood athletic leagues. Organizations focused on gun violence will recruit from the young people who they are already working with in the community, gun violence prevention groups, and individuals referred from the court system. DOL will outreach to eligible young people from the priority zip codes who have received unemployment benefits in recent years.

The program is an opportunity for CWE to build capacity for workforce development services in communities that need them, like Southeast Queens.

“Queens Community House joined this initiative as it is aligned with our mission to provide individuals and families with the tools to enrich their lives,” says Ivonne Torres, LMSW, Associate Executive Director of Young Adult Services located in Southeast Queens. “We see workforce development as a way to support our participants out of poverty. Placing young people in jobs will ultimately provide them with upward mobility, safety and positive contributions to their community.”

When young people enter the program, local community-based organizations partnering with CWE will help them identify education gaps, learn basic job-readiness skills, and plan an initial set of activities to improve their employability. Participants will get no-cost referrals for housing support, substance abuse counseling, and assistance applying for public benefits. Organizations are also able to provide incentives like training support tools and work-related certifications to keep participants engaged.

Young people will be placed into jobs in growing industries, including transportation, construction, IT, and healthcare.

The young people will be connected to occupational training for an industry that interests them, including skills development courses that provide credentials and building trades pre-apprenticeship preparation. Finally, CWE partners will engage with employers to place participants into jobs in growing industries, including transportation, construction, IT, and healthcare.

Skill building that leads to a career-track job will help many at-risk young people avoid becoming victims or perpetrators of gun violence, says Glenda Williams, Deputy Executive Director of Workforce Partnerships at CWE.

“The short-term solution is getting them off the street and getting them into a job,” says Williams. “Long term, we need to reach them at the moment when they are about to leave school prematurely and give them opportunities. CWE’s core partners are part of those long-term gun violence prevention systems in their communities.”

CWE hopes that the infusion of resources coming with the one year program will serve as a catalyst for these communities to continue building their own long-term solutions to gun violence.

“At Phipps Neighborhoods, we know that gun violence is a public health crisis with dire social and economic costs for our Bronx residents,” says Andre White, Executive Director & CEO of Phipps Neighborhoods. “Joblessness and marginal employment opportunities contribute to the cycle of violence by increasing stress, weakening social bonds and connections to the labor force, and negatively impacting psychological well-being. Phipps Neighborhoods joined the CWE Young Adult Gun Violence Prevention Program because as a social change organization, we are committed to investing in our community and creating high-paying and sustaining career pathways for our most vulnerable and economically disadvantaged neighbors.”