FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                          

Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor Joins YouthBuild students

and other Young People To Develop Solutions to Illinois Problems

June 12-13, 2001: During the Illinois Statewide Youth Development Conference at the State Capital Complex, over 100 young people and adults gathered to work together to draft their priorities for the state of Illinois. At the end of the conference they will delivered their priorities in person to government officials. On June 12, 2001, they were welcomed by Raymond L. Bramucci, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training.

“The millions of young people unemployed and disengaged from their communities will only grow if we don’t find ways to tap their enormous potential rather than dismissing them and their culture,” said Bramucci.  From 1998-2001, Raymond Bramucci managed The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Division, the $10 billion agency  that funds job training, unemployment benefits, and related activity. He was instrumental in the formation of the new Office of Youth Services at the Department of Labor and in the implementation of the new Workforce Investment Act. He also leveraged bipartisan support in the Congress to secure $1.2 billion for the massive new youth program called Youth Opportunity Grants. A lifelong advocate for working people, Bramucci has been described as the “Will Rogers of the workforce.”

Sponsored by the Illinois YouthBuild Coalition and the Illinois State Youth Council, this conference gave young people a chance to be heard, as in 1998 when students and alumni of YouthBuild programs issued the Declaration of Interdependence. This national policy statement opened with “We believe it is our responsibility as young leaders to think through the important issues facing our communities and our nation, and make proposals for changes that will improve the conditions of both.”

Kerry Knodle, chairman of the Illinois YouthBuild Coalition, said, “ It’s time to make the same sort of statement here in Illinois.” The conference sponsors are reaching out to a wide audience of youth around the state, who will develop their own list of priorities in five critical areas – education and public schools, community economic development, workforce development, the justice system, and family support – modeled after the national declaration.

Hopeful about this statement of priorities, Filomeno DeLeon III, a graduate of YouthBuild Rockford and member of the local Youth Council said, “We look forward to communicating our ideas to our lawmakers, so that Illinoisans can do away with stereotypical ways of thinking, and give young people a chance to learn, grow and live up to their full potential.”

For more information on:

·         Young people’s national priorities, go to www.youthbuild.org and click on The Declaration of Inter-Dependence.

·         YouthBuild, go to www.youthbuild.org.

·         Illinois Workforce Development System, go to www.ilworkforce.org.

  About YouthBuild:  

YouthBuild was founded in 1978 when a group of New York City teens expressed their desire to renovate abandoned buildings and revitalize their community. Today there are 165 YouthBuild sites nationwide where low-income young people build affordable housing in their communities. They split their time between the construction site and the classroom, where they can earn their GED or high school diploma, participate in counseling, and prepare for jobs or college.

More than 20,000 young people ages 16-24 have rebuilt their communities and transformed their lives through YouthBuild since 1993. They have created more than 7,000 units of housing for homeless and low-income families.

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