A plan to curb gun violence through job training and placement took another step forward Tuesday.
Monroe County and RochesterWorks announced a program called ROC SEEDS. It’ll use more than $2.25 million from New York state to develop pathways to employment for people between ages 18 and 24 in select Rochester ZIP codes (14605, 14606, 14608, 14609, 14611, 14613, 14615, 14619, and 14621). The ZIP codes were chosen because of the high amount of gun violence in those neighborhoods.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the initiative last month as part of a plan to roll out similar programs in cities statewide due to a surge in gun violence. As of last week, Rochester Police data shows that there were 44 homicides so far this year. Last year, there were 52 homicides.
Adrian Hale, with the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce, said finding employers was not difficult because plenty of unfilled jobs already exist. He doesn’t expect filling the 50 initial positions to be difficult either. The chamber is handling much of the business outreach for this program. He said employers need to do their part to give people a second chance.
“Some of our employers do have requirements and prerequisites for employment that we have been working with them to have relaxed and waived,” said Hale.
Antwan WIlliams, who leads RochesterWorks youth programs, said they’ll take an individualized approach to each person in the program.
“Assessing an individual's potential, minimizing the barriers, and providing the needed support for them to be successful,” said Williams.
Monroe County Executive Adam Bello said the program is about helping people reach their fullest potential.
“The 18 to 24 demographic that we’re targeting has their entire lives ahead of them and with the correct support systems in place, they have the ability to achieve incredible things,” said Bello.
After the training is over, the 50 people who take part will be hired by the companies who trained them for the positions. All the jobs pay a minimum of $15 per hour. Most of the cohort is expected to be referred to the program through county agencies or can apply themselves at rocseeds.org.
