BELLOWS FALLS — Youth Services is again providing a seven-week summer work program for low-income youth in the Bellows Falls area. The program runs through Aug. 9.
Thirteen youth have been selected to benefit from paid summer jobs in landscaping, service and agriculture as well as gain important life skills that will better prepare them for entering the workforce and living independently, organizers said.
“Thanks to Department of Labor funding, we are pleased to be able to offer this much-needed program for a fifth year,” Bianca Barry, youth development director for Youth Services, said in a press statement. Barry said she developed the project after noticing that employment and job development skills were two of the highest needs of the youth she serves.
Participants work and learn at a variety of sites each morning, share a nutritious lunch, and study life and academic skills afternoons at the Health Center at Bellows Falls, all under the guidance and support of two adult supervisors and a Youth Services case manager.
The youth learn skills and make valuable contributions to the area, Barry said. Projects include a week of landscaping and trail maintenance for the town of Rockingham; undertaking a food drive for the Greater Falls Warming Shelter; cleaning up the town of Saxtons River after its Fourth of July celebration; and maintaining the gardens at Compass School, Kurn Hattin Homes, and Westminster Center School.