Atlantic City is putting more than 300 young people to work this summer.
The Summer Work Program teaches residents from 14 to early 20s job and life lessons while allowing them to earn money working with partnered businesses around the city.
“There couldn’t be any better investment than to invest in the youth of our community,” said Joe Jingoli, owner of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City.
The program has been around for a few years, but has more than tripled its reach this year.
“We’ve utilized the expertise of all involved for this youth employment program this summer,” said Shermaine Gunter-Gary, the project administrator.
She then told the story of how, as children, she and her brother each had a nickel but could not figure out how to get a 10-cent popsicle. When their father came along, he pointed out that they could join their nickels and share the treat.
That is what Mayor Marty Small has done in bringing together the various partners, she said. It’s gathering together all the nickels.
A handful of the youths benefiting from that collection stood on the steps of the Carnegie Building on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, as the mayor and others heralded the program to media Tuesday before giving a tour inside.
The building that once belonged to Stockton University is still a learning institution, the mayor stressed.
In each room, something was going on.
Apria Newsome sews shorts.
Apria Newsome and her fellow students sat at sewing machines in Fashion and Design, each working on a pair of shorts. They also had sewn the scrunchies each had in their hair and small zippered bags.
There were students learning Python computer programing, and others planning their own businesses.
The program has grown a lot since its beginnings in Stanley Holmes Village, Sah’nye Degraffenreidt who started going to the program when he was 14 and there were only a few kids.
Now 17, the star Atlantic City Viking wide receiver is getting ready to start his senior year. He’s then headed to Rutgers University on full-ride.
Coach Greg Schiano came to the High School in a helicopter to woo the player known as Ice Cup.
Star athletes aside, the program keeps track of its own progress, Gunter-Gary explained.
Each participant comes in and maps out their goals. At the end of the program they’re given a kind of exit interview to see what they have achieved.
The work inside Carnegie also points to the successes of other city programs, Small pointed out.
Janay Gross and Lamont Carson are team leaders who both started out with the Boys & Girls Club.
Lamont Carson and Janay Gross
They now also work with one of their first “kids” there, 18-year-old Lynette Cooper, who assists Omar McDaniels, assistant director of the city’s anti-violence group, One Neighborhood Evolution.
Carnegie has a lot of former Boys & Girls Club workers there.
“We’re professional thieves,” McDaniels joked of bringing over some of the best they have seen at the club.
Tracy Parker is among them.
Even before being a Boys & Girls Club kid, she was in a summer program led by Small and Gunter-Gary. The boys were All Sports and she was one of the Precious Jewels, which is how the girls were labeled.
ONE is housed in Carnegie along with the city’s Re-Entry Program, and now the National Action Network and the African-American Chamber of Commerce.
BreakingAC even got to be a part of the action as the three teen co-hosts of the program's One Talk Podcast invited this reporter to be among their first guests.
Behind the scenes of Summer Work Program participants putting together a podcast for Atlantic City's One Neighborhood Evolution Anti-Violence Program.
J’Adore Smartel, 15, along with Ozra Akbar and Jahmad Forbe, both 19, peppered hard-hitting questions during the show.
It’s good practice for Forbe who will return to William Paterson University for his sophomore year this fall.He is majoring in broadcast journalism.
In addition to the employment opportunities within Carnegie, there are 18 other businesses who employ the participants, including City Hall.
The businesses include Resorts Spa, High Five, City Swirls, Swapz, Body by Yaya, Daily Grind, Mike B's, Boardwalk Merchants, Rodeway Inn, Wadya Clothing, Showboat Store, Surf Stadium, Second Baptist Church, Island Waterpark and NAN Technologies.
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