For Immediate Release: 7/20/2015 3:54 pm
Worcester, MA (July 20, 2015)- State and City officials and local leaders will gather at 12:00 PM on Wednesday, July 22nd at Castle Park to celebrate the success of the Park Stewards Program in providing vital summer jobs for local young people.
The Park Stewards program is a five-week summer employment program for youth ages 16 - 21. This year, 30 youth maintenance workers have been hired to perform various duties to maintain and improve the City's public parks. Their work includes: maintaining and grooming trails, collecting litter, painting benches and tables, removing invasive species and overgrowth, cleaning walkways, paths, and playgrounds, installing signage and helping to install a 12-station outdoor fitness circuit.
The program is sponsored by Massport and the City of Worcester, which contributed $24,840 and $50,000, respectively.
The youth workers are overseen by Rick Miller, President of the Friends of Newton Hill, and Dania Flores, Director of Pleasant Street Neighborhood Network Center, as well as on site youth maintenance supervisors.
Youth workers perform work at the following sites: Castle Park, Cookson Park, Green Hill Park, Newton Hill, University Park, Boynton Park, Cascades Park, Columbus Park, Hadwen Arboretum, Beaver Brook Park, Salisbury Park and Institute Park.
The Park Stewards program was created in 2012 as an expansion of the Pleasant Street Neighborhood Network Center's "Around the Corner" summer youth jobs program, which successfully ran for six years at Newton Hill.
