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Statement By Mayor Wayne Hall Village of Hempstead
Good afternoon everyone, and thank you Rev. Reginald Benjamin for inviting me to be a part of this event. As the Mayor of a Village that is defined by its diversity and whose young adults between the ages of 17 to twenty-four are experiencing serious obstacles to unemployment this issue is very close to my heart. Many of our youngsters are the last hired and the first fired, and in point of fact many of them can’t even get hired in the first place. In April of this year the Bureau of Labor Statistics listed the unemployment rate for white men 20 years or older as 7.9%. Black male unemployment during the same period was 17.0% for men in the same age group. For black males between 16 and 19, however, the unemployment rate was 41.6% and in communities it may be as high as 50%. Imagine if you will, if 50% of the young men in your community were unemployed. What would it do to the stability of the family, of the community? In light of these facts, ABBA Leadership Center, the Zenith Group Inc. and Conifer LeChase Construction LLC are to be commended for their partnership around the Job Readiness Program. This innovative program provides valuable, hands-on construction experience for hard-to-employ at-risk minority youth and young adults in the Village of Hempstead. It gives minority youth access to the construction industry, an industry that has acknowledged in the past that it is in need of greater diversity. Likewise, the program provides construction companies with a source for skilled and trained new hires, and in turn helps to grow the diversity of their ranks. So once again I applaud the ABBA Leadership Center, the Zenith Group Inc. and Conifer LeChase Construction LLC for this innovative program. I would also like to commend and congratulate Raymond Castronovo of The Zenith Group and Brian Mullen of Conifer LeChase Construction for their extraordinary efforts to encourage and provide work experience opportunities to the young people of our Village who have had an especially hard time of getting hired. My understanding is that a significant number – some 64 -- of the hires on thissite are from the Hempstead community and are African-American and Latino. That is record breaking. Those are among the highest numbers that I’ve heard of on a construction job site in Nassau County. For too long minority construction workers have decried the lack of access to construction jobs and have voiced a feeling of being locked out. Raymond Castronovo and Brian Mullen’s dedication to working in partnership with Hempstead is altruistic and community minded, but even more importantly, it’s smart business. For by providing job opportunities to local youth they not only aid in improving the youngsters’life outcomes and the local economy, but they build good will with community residents, with government and with other local businesses. I commend these two men and their companies for their vision and commitment. They exemplify what can be achieved when businesses partner with the communities in in which they work. I look forward to continuing to work ABBA, the Zenith Group Inc., Conifer LeChase Construction LLC and with all who support the mission of creating better opportunities within our Village. I urge others to get involved with and support the Job Readiness Program. All of you who support this cause are creating brighter futures. Thank you. ON JULY 19, 2014 ABBA LEADERSHIP CENTER WILL HOLD ITS FIRST CONTRACTORS CONFERENCE TO EDUCATE LOCAL WMBE/MBE CONTRACTORS ON SUCCESSFULLY BIDDING ON UPCOMING CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS SUCH AS THE 2.5 BILLION DOLLARS RENAISSANCE DOWNTOWN/URBAN AMERICA REDEVELOPMENT OF DOWNTOWN HEMPSTEAD AND THE FOREST CITY RATNER COMPANIES REDEVELOPMENT OF THE NASSAU COLISEUM. |