What if I told you Texas has a program that helps “at risk” youth stay out of jail, finish their high school education, get job skills that put them on a pathway out of poverty, all while working in industries that are reducing greenhouse gas emissions and moving us into a new green economy?

 Well it’s not true, but it could be very soon.

 This past Monday, the House committee on Technology, Economic Development and Workforce had a public hearing about several bills, one being HB 2492.  HB 2492 is would create a statewide YouthBuild program that helps at risk youth by giving them paid job training in green job markets, as well as life skills counseling and the opportunity to finish their high school education.

Jeff and I went to the hearing to represent ReEnergize Texas and testify in favor of HB 2492.  I was the first one up, and was extremely nervous, but it went pretty well.  I spoke about how the lack of jobs in the Current economy makes it more likely for at-risk youth to turn to other, more illegal, ways of making money, and how a YouthBuild program can start to fix that problem. 

 There were many people that testified that were from youthbuild programs from across the state of Texas, including American Youthworks here in Austin.  Their speeches were great because they have worked directly with these kids and seen the very tangible and positive results from how well these programs work.  The young people that these programs affect aren’t bad and they are extremely capable, they just need opportunities.

One of the coolest things about testifying is that you are talking directly to senators or representatives.  When you do lobby visits, most of the time you only speak to a staffer, so testifying is a really effective way to let elected officials hear what their constituents have to say.

It’s also pretty cool when you testify as a young person because it isn’t too often that young people testify, and I think it throws the committee members for a loop. At the end of my speech, Rep. Strama asked me, “How did you come to be involved with this bill?” I told him about ReEnergize Texas, and he was just like “Alright, cool.” Okay, maybe those weren’t his exact words, but he seemed pretty surprised that some young girl just came out of nowhere.

So why don’t you come out of nowhere, too?  Give your State Representative a call (you can get their number at this website: http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/) and ask them to support HB 2492.  We’ve all had friends who could have benefited from something like this, and it will be a boon to our state if instead of throwing our young people away in the criminal justice system, we make sure they have a chance to participate in the brighter future we all know is coming.

You can watch live (or archived) hearings here. 

Jeni Wilde
4/11/2009 

 

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 11th, 2009 at 6:15 pm and is filed under University of Texas at Austin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.