FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: 7/22/08

Contact: Regina Perry, Public Information Officer

               973-266-5339/Office

               Nicole Wigfall, Program Coordinator

973-266-5192/Office

               973-395-8927/Fax

City of East Orange and NJIT

Youth Biz Camp Closing Ceremony

When:         Friday, July 25^th

10:00 A.M.

Where:       New Jersey Institute of Technology, Enterprise Development Center,

211 Warren Street, Conference Room 407, Newark, New Jersey

Contact:     M.J. Peterson at (973) 677-8916

Twenty-two (22) East Orange youth enrolled in the City’s 2008 Summer Jobs Program will participate in a two-week Entrepreneur Workshop at NJIT, wherein youth explore entrepreneurship as a career option.  The City of East Orange, in partnership with NJIT, provides youth with the fundamentals of operating their own business through hands-on learning activities, including a final project of writing and presenting a workable business plan.  Biz Camp students will have the opportunity to learn about different types of businesses and the many aspects of running a business.  “The goal of the program is to spark students’ interest in owning their own business, to employ entrepreneurial concepts to remain competitive in the workforce, and utilize entrepreneurship as a vehicle for change in their respective communities,” said M.J. Peterson, Manage of the City’s Division of Employment and Training and the Youth 2000 Initiative, “Let’s Put Our Youth to Work Program.”  She challenges youth to own the McDonald’s you are currently working in this summer.

A ceremony will take place in NJIT Enterprise Development Center at 10:00 a.m., 211 Warren Street, Conference Room 407, Newark, New Jersey, where the president of NJIT will present the youth certificates of recognition.

The “Y2” is an innovative program that provides comprehensive year-round employment service for youth.  The program is a free referral service, which seeks to match job-seeking young people with employers.  The office is also a “One Stop Career Center” that offers teens and young adults a place to conduct job searches, explore career opportunities and obtains the necessary life skills to successfully sustain meaningful employment.  Employers are asked to pledge summer, fall and after school job opportunities.  An additional service offered by the “Y2” Program is the “Y2” Job Link that provides transportation for youth participants going on job interviews in the Essex County Regional area.

Other programs include; galleryEastOrange, a job training arts program wherein local youth are hired as apprentices to create art for public spaces throughout the City of East Orange, and the Y2 “Job Smart Academy,” a five day intensive, pre-employment skills program assists youth with proper protocol for the workplace environment.

PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE

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