Blagojevich announces $150 million initiative to get young people jobs, reduce violence

Julio Rodriguez has been in and out of jail many times. When he's out, he can't find a job, so he feeds his drug habit.

Now Rodriguez is working to turn his life around.

He has completed one week of a 28-day residential program, run by Healthcare Alternative Systems, designed to keep him away from drugs and to help him find work when he returns to his community.

"We need help. Everybody needs help," Rodriguez said.

On Tuesday, Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced a $150 million initiative that could help young people living in impoverished communities to escape a world of joblessness, drugs and violence.

The plan, Community Investment Works, is meant to  reverse a trend that has prevented people like Rodriguez from finding work.

"These problems don't just come and go with the seasons," Blagojevich said.  "These problems are endemic."

Activists, community leaders and concerned residents packed into a gym at a West Side Boys & Girls Club to show support for the governor's plan. 

If approved, Community Investment Works would fund jobs for as many as 20,000 13- to 22-year-olds this summer. It would also provide grants for community organizations in high-crime areas throughout the state.

The plan needs the approval of the Illinois General Assembly. Blagojevich urged Illinois residents to contact their legislators to support Community Investment Works.

The jobs would engage young people in community development and beautification. They would work with the elderly, clean up vacant lots and plant community gardens.

The other option, according to many community members, is the street, and more violence, more deaths and another generation lost.

Rodriguez said job opportunities like the ones proposed could have helped him stay out of trouble. 

When he applies for jobs, his criminal record often stands in his way.

Some employers will not even let him apply -- they turn him down without knowing anything about him.

"The problem is not just drugs," Rodriguez said. "It's the way we act, the way we dress, the way we speak."

Blagojevich said he would work to persuade legislators from other parts of Illinois that youth violence is not just a Chicago problem, and that Community Investment Works could help prevent more deaths.

"Any opportunity is a big plus," said Rafael Rivera, senior program director for H.A.S. "I say this is a step to start engaging youth in productive acts."