NOVA in the News

Sunnyvale Sun
May 12, 2009

NOVA using stimulus funds to foster youth employment

The North Valley Job Training Consortium will funnel more than $200,000 in federal stimulus funding to 10 schools and nonprofit groups for youth employment, training or leadership development.

NOVA received more than $1 million in funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or stimulus package, for youth services. The agency, which is managed by Sunnyvale, also serves Cupertino, Los Altos, Milpitas, Mountain View, Palo Alto and Santa Clara.

The summer-long program will serve about 200 young people, giving them up to 200 hours of training to prepare for the workplace, a job and some career and leadership development training. At least half of their time will be spent working.

The youth will paid for all of their time depending on their age — $8 per hour for high school students, $9 for high school graduates or those with a GED and $10 per hour for those who have completed some college.

Kris Stadelman, director of NOVA, said the stimulus funding would be well spent.

"The reason this fits into the recovery act is because it's stimulative. We're putting funding into the hands of people that will spend it," she said.

Stadelman, who took her post about a month ago, said that past studies have shown that teenagers generate $4 for the economy for every $1 that is spent on them in a "multiplier effect." She cautioned, however, that it is unclear whether that multiplier is still accurate.

Regardless, she said, "Early involvement of young people in work really enables them to find a way to productive adulthood without dropping out of school, without getting involved in drugs or the judicial system and without becoming young parents."

The organizations that NOVA will fund include the De Anza Community College Intercultural/International Studies Division, Digital Media Academy, Fremont Union High School District, Full Circle Farm, Foothill-De Anza Community College District's Occupational Training Institute, Palo Alto Unified School District, Sensory Access Foundation, TransAccess, Foothill College and Silicon Valley FACES.

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