Alex Hernandez had no idea what he would be doing this summer. "Looking for a job," is the best answer the 20-year-old West St. Paul man offered when asked of his plans.
Hernandez's plans changed a month ago when he started part-time work with Tree Trust, the St. Paul-based nonprofit organization that employs at-risk and disabled youths in mostly outdoor work. These days Hernandez is working with a crew building a section of retaining wall at Groveland Park in Inver Grove Heights.
He works alongside Joey Welle and Dimitri Johnson, as the three young men measure and pound and measure with the level again to ensure the wall is straight. All three say they would be not up to much this summer without Tree Trust jobs. Same goes for their crew leader, Abbie Heffelfinger, who will start her senior year at Sarah Lawrence College next month.
"I would have had a hard time getting a job," says Heffelfinger.
The Groveland Park crew members have the federal stimulus funds to thank for their jobs, which came to Tree Trust in a $1.1 million grant. Tree Trust has been able to hire 1,117 people so far this year for its summer jobs program, compared to 772 for all of last summer.
And the organization is working at more sites, too. In addition to Groveland Park, Tree Trust is working at 41 other outdoor sites, as opposed to 25 last summer. The program also employs people -- typically those with mental or physical disabilities -- in smaller numbers at indoor work locations.
In a summer that has brought so much joblessness to once gainfully employed adults, the problem of teens and young adults finding jobs has been all the more pronounced, says Arika Garg, Tree Trust spokeswoman. "Because of the recession, we're getting more youths who normally would be in different jobs, but there are just not as many of those jobs available for them," Garg said.
For example, though it's been able to provide many more summer jobs this year, Tree Trust's waiting list, at 578, is slightly longer than it was last year, 552. That means youths who don't have a job so far aren't likely to find one with Tree Trust, though there are very limited openings in suburban Ramsey County and Bloomington, says Norm Champ, Tree Trust vice president. "Our recruitment starts March 1, and we generally fill in 2-3 weeks," Champ said.
