Queens Community House Awarded Grant to Help Young Adults Find Jobs

Forest Hills’ Queens Community House has been awarded a grant to develop an initiative that would help young adults find jobs.

A collaboration of four borough-based organizations headed by the community house were given the grant through JobsFirstNYC’s Young Adult Sectoral Employment Project, which aims to find work for persons between the ages of 18 and 24 years whose job prospects have been affected by the economic downturn.

Queens Community House’s partners in the project include Long Island City’s Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement House, Sunnyside Community Services and Arverne’s Ocean Bay Community Development Corporation.

Each partnership will receive a $50,000 grant to plan programs to improve employment options for young adults who are out of school and without a job, but may not be ready for college.

“Collectively, these organizations have an incredible amount of experience in youth development and young adult employment,” said Irma Rodriguez, executive director of Queens Community House. “We now will be able to pool our expertise and think creatively about how to best support the interests of both Queens employers and our out-of-work young adult population.”

The four organizations are looking to work with employers throughout Queens to create a borough-wide collaboration focused on the food industry.

Queens Community House, located at 63-55 102nd St., is a non-profit with 21 sites that serve as centers for community gathering, organizing and social service activities.