Jobs and Training for Out-of-School Youth

The Buffalo metro area has the unfortunate distinction of topping the list among 35 large American cities with a staggering black male jobless rate of 51.4 percent. Equally challenging, the poverty rate in the city is 28.7 percent, placing our city third from the bottom behind two other Great Lakes cities. Finally, while statistics vary, it is widely believed that over 54\% of our young people end up dropping out of high school, creating an immense challenge for our communities. These statistics should not discourage us, but rather challenge us to work together to create innovative programs that will prepare people for personal success, educational opportunity, and pathways out of poverty.

Buffalo ReUses ReBEL (Buffalo Eco Leaders) Corps provides the necessary support, mentoring, and training to assist young adults in transitioning from their current situation to a technical training program, employment opportunity, or university institution. The ReBEL Corps is a vehicle for engaging young people in their neighborhoods, offering diverse skills training, imparting an ecological ethos, and developing a solid foundation of skills and experiences that will enable their future success as leaders, community members, entrepreneurs, and ecological stewards. The program capitalizes on a growing coalition of grassroots organizations in the City of Buffalo, a strengthening partnership between not-for-profit organizations and government, and an increasing consciousness regarding the value of greening our economy.

On Friday April 17th, Buffalo ReUse submitted their application to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Green Jobs Best Practices Grants, to obtain $550,000 in funding to initiate the ReBEL Corps, pre-apprenticeship program in 2009. The ReBEL Corps will employ and train 32 out of school young adults from the City of Buffalo in projects that improve our communities and prepare them for green jobs or advanced training/educational opportunities. By signing this petition, you support Buffalo ReUse's commitment to training out of school young adults to improve lives and strengthen inner-city neighborhoods. Furthermore, you urge our Mayor, Byron Brown to submit to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the required letter of support to qualify the ReBEL Corps application for voting on May 4th, 2009.