Upcoming Town Hall Meeting on Jobless Teens

Mark your calendar for an upcoming town hall meeting on teen jobs, hosted by our friends at Columbia LINKS.

Columbia Links, a teen reporting academy, invites you to its town hall meeting, "Not Hiring: The Plight of Jobless Teens," moderated by journalist and media commentator Laura Washington at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011. The evening will also launch the newest edition of R_Wurd, the teen magazine produced by Columbia Links students.

The latest government figures show teen unemployment at 25.4 percent nationwide in August 2011, nearly triple that of other major worker groups: adult men (8.9 percent), adult women (8.0 percent). Overall, 14 million Americans or 9.1 percent remain mired in joblessness. 

And numbers for summer 2011 are even bleaker for black teens: 46.5 percent in August, up from 39.2 percent in July, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston.

The discussion is just beginning. Now let's act. We welcome your participation on Nov. 2.

Guests confirmed:

Jack Wuest of the Alternative School Network and who commissioned the Center for Labor Market study on teens and unemployment.

Jhatayn Travis, executive director of the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization and part of the coalition of community groups that sponsored teen hears and marches to Springfield and Washington this summer. 

U.S. Congressman Bobby Rush and/or Anton Seals, Cong. Rush's District Program Manager,  sponsor on teens and employment on the federal level.

Phillip Jackson, president and founder of the Black Star Project.

Teen panelists

Pending guests:

Andrea Zopp, president of the Chicago Urban League.

State Rep. Esther Golar, sponsor of the Teen Unemployment Bill 3631 on the state level.

The Office of Mayor Rahm Emanuel

School Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard

So SAVE THE DATE for the Columbia Links town hall meeting and launch of the newest edition of R_Wurd (the Columbia Links teen magazine):

"Not Hiring: The Plight of Jobless Teens”

5:30 p.m. Wed., Nov. 2, 2011

Stage 2 at Columbia College Chicago

618 S. Michigan Ave.

Chicago 60605

Also, check out the Columbia Links site at www.columbialinks.org and see the video on jobless teens titled "The Summer Blues" (it's the one with the male teen standing in front of the Best Buy store).