Local leaders celebrated the launch of the Los Angeles City and County-wide 2015 summer youth employment program that will provide nearly 20,000 youth with job skills training, financial literacy skills and what are often first-time paychecks.

Mayor Eric Garcetti and Supervisor Don Knabe, joined by Supervisors Hilda Solis, Sheila Kuehl, Mark Ridley-Thomas, and Councilmember Gil Cedillo kicked off the program at Grand Park with young Angelenos from throughout the region.

The program will focus on high-growth, high-wage sectors, exposing youth to opportunities in industries like transportation, healthcare, hospitality, logistics and financial services, and will target some of the county’s most vulnerable and at-risk youth.

It is a partnership between the city and the county, public agencies, the private sector, and corporate sponsors.

“This year, we’re on track to hit nearly 20,000 (youth summer jobs) countywide,” Garcetti said.

“Our young people were the hardest hit in the recession and jobs available to them have been the slowest to recover,” Knabe said. “An opportunity is all these kids need — a chance to show their skills and to work hard.”

HIRE L.A.’s Youth, a key component of the Youth Workforce Development System in the City and County of Los Angeles provides career exploration opportunities to low-income youth between the ages of 14 and 24.

This year, specific opportunities are targeted to youth from families receiving CalWORKs public assistance, foster youth, youth on probation, youth receiving General Relief and homeless youth.

Garcetti signed Executive Directive No. 9, which instructs all city departments to support HIRE L.A.’s Youth program.

Departments across the city have already pledged to sponsor more than 3,000 young Angelenos in jobs this summer, including the mayor’s office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development (GRYD), the Housing Authority for the City of Los Angeles, the Department of Recreation and Parks and the Los Angeles Public Library.

The city and county also announced a new partnership with Starbucks and LeadersUp.

In 2013, Starbucks established LeadersUp as a solution to closing the opportunity divide between untapped potential of young people and the business challenge of finding and keeping the best talent.

Working through their LeadersUp program, Starbucks has made a national commitment to hire 10,000 youth into permanent positions at Starbucks and their supply chain partners nationwide.