Mayor Greets Youth and Employers at Summer Career Fair

Baltimore, MD – The Mayor’s Office of Employment Development’s Youth Opportunity initiative will host its third annual youth leadership conference Thursday, August 14, 2003 on the Liberty Campus of Baltimore City Community College. The focus of the conference will be ethics and character in leadership. The conference will focus on difficult issues such as ethnocentrism, racism, “heterosexualism,” addictions, voter rights and much more. It is anticipated that more than 300 youth will be in attendance.

The keynote speaker at the event will be State Delegate Salima Siler Marriott of the 40th district of Baltimore City, chair of the Joint Committee on Children, Youth and Families. Also featured will be hip-hop poet Tonya Maria Matthews (“Ja Hipster”), who will use spoken word to weave the threads of the conference together.

“In these challenging times, we must make every effort to ensure our youth have a forum to evaluate their personal ethics and character as they develop into tomorrow’s leaders,” shared Ernest Dorsey, director of the Youth Opportunity area in Baltimore.

An initiative of the Baltimore Workforce Investment Board Youth Council, Mayor’s Office of Employment Development, and multiple workforce partners, YO! Baltimore increases the long-term employability of Empowerment Zone youth and young adults by offering a broad array of education, work-readiness and personal development resources and activities. Since YO! Baltimore began three years ago, more than 3,200 Empowerment Zone residents, ages 16 to 21, have become YO! members.

During the first three years of YO! Baltimore:

308 members have earned high school diplomas and 78 have earned GEDs
146 enrolled in college (1 has earned an AA degree)
167 have earned career training credentials
1,010 have been placed in employment, college or skills training

For additional information about this conference or YO! Baltimore and its center locations, call 410-396-6722.