Erie community leaders came together downtown today, calling for stronger job opportunities for young people. A march in Perry Square highlighted programs already available \u2014 and pushed for even more support.<\/p>\n
This morning at Perry Square, dozens of marchers circled the park in a peaceful demonstration, holding signs and calling attention to the need for real job opportunities for Erie’s youth.<\/p>\n
Organizers with MCIC and UECDC say the “Hire the Future” rally was designed to spotlight job pathways already available.<\/p>\n
Two young marchers told me they came out because they want adults in the community to see they’re ready for them.<\/p>\n
“Some of my peers and some of my friends don’t have jobs, and I was one of the lucky ones that had a job. But last year I couldn’t have a job, so that’s why I’m standing for my friends,” Passe Yokolo, a marcher, shared.<\/p>\n
One marcher shared his biggest obstacle to finding a job is age requirements that won’t even consider him until he’s older.<\/p>\n
“Most people require you to get to a certain age to get a job, so I think that’s one of the biggest struggles nowadays,” Muhammad, a marcher, explained.<\/p>\n
“Thursday’s march is about proving Erie’s youth are ready for jobs \u2014 and pushing employers to invest in the city’s future,” Stephanie Logue reported.<\/p>\n
I talked with Erie City Councilman Andre Horton, who says he was there to fully support the rally \u2014 and to stand with Gary Horton, the event’s organizer \u2014 as they work to expand opportunities for young people across the city.<\/p>\n
“The economy being the way it is, just a summer job or a little bit of income could mean volumes to a household,” Erie City Councilman Andre Horton said.<\/p>\n
Erie Summer Jobs and CareerLink were both on-site, offering information and sign-ups for teens looking for work.<\/p>\n
Everyone could not stress enough why they were there: supporting youth and pushing for more job access for Erie’s next generation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Erie community leaders came together downtown today, calling for stronger job opportunities for young people. A march in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[103095,136,138,137,33846,370,103094],"class_list":["post-239750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-community-rally","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-job-opportunities","tag-perry-square","tag-youth-employment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}