Hundreds of young adults in Chesterfield and Marlboro Counties are expected to complete a government summer employment program designed to increase the employment rate and improve moral in the midst of a harsh economic climate.

Some of the funds from U.S. President Barack Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act are being used for the employment program, dubbed YouthWorks 2009, and are being administered and disbursed in eastern South Carolina by the Pee Dee Regional Council of Governments. The council has contracted several agencies in the area to offer training to ready youth ages 16 to 24 for their summer employment experience. HiTek Learning Systems, a Cheraw –based facility that offers work-based training is one of those contracted agencies, HiTek Director’s Assistant Kimberly Wingate said.

The agency is offering YouthWorks participants 30-hour work readiness training before placing them with local business and government offices for summer work experience, Wingate said.

About 30 students were enrolled in a 30-hour work readiness training in Cheraw that began June 1 and will conclude June 12. It was preceded by a training session held at Northeastern Technical College and will be followed by several more sessions.

YouthWorks is ideal for the Chesterfield County and Marlboro County area because there is a great need for jobs as well as skilled laborers to fill available positions in the rural counties where a high unemployment rate seems to be a mainstay, she said.

"I believe that with the youths, you have to give them the skills to be contributing members of society,” Wingate said.

HiTek Director Stephanie Bradley said HiTek’s goal is to help people help their community.

“HiTek is a learning institution where all participates are encouraged to succeed and are given a chance to succeed,” Bradley said. “They enter our facility to learn and they leave with hopes of giving back to the community. A lot look at our facility as a second chance.”

Twenty-three -year-old Jefferson resident Dorietha King is a HiTek-trained YouthWorks participant who is now working in the Cheraw Codes Enforcement office.

She started the job on June 1 after completing the 30-hour YouthWorks readiness training and has already improved her organization skills, King said.

“It’s really just filing, it’s really cut and dry,” King said. “It’s not that hard.”

Cheraw Codes Enforcement Officer E.H. Sauls said King has been a great help to the office and to the town of Cheraw.

“I hate filing,” he said. “I’ve been asking for somebody to come in part-time and help.”

There’s a backlog of building permits and codes from 2004 that need to be filed and she’s helping to get the work done, King said.

Her experience with the town of Cheraw thus far has prompted her to consider a clerical career, she said.