does not then follow necessarily that it should be set out to deal with those problems. In our view, the Manpower Administration in Denver should not just be dealing with the disadvantaged, it should not be limited to the extent of the resources that we have now. We feel we should deal with a wide variety of clientele. In fact, we are in the process of some very sensitive conversations with the State Employment Service, directed toward merging the resources so that one entity can handle all of the problems of the unemployment. That's what I'd like to see nationally so that we would not be put in with youth or any other category. Mr. HAWKINS. We certainly appreciate that reply. I have one more question which is in connection with the Job Corps. It has been stated that many young people are disqualified from the Job Corps because of their criminal records. To what extent does this interfere with a youthful applicant in your program? Mr. JOYCE. We have not used the Job Corps extensively in Denver for two reasons. One, probably the primary reason being that the nearest Job Corps center is quite a distance from here, in Grand Junction. What we normally do, and this is part of the consolidation, is the points of assistance in Denver is quite in depth at recruiting for the Job Corps. In fact, recently they were nominated as number one in the country by the Department of Labor. We normally refer applicants that we feel are possibly best serviced by getting a job with the employment service. I would say that is a difficulty with a number of clients, particularly from some of the problems that you were talking about today. Mr. HAWKINS. Again, Mr. Joyce, I wish to thank you for your presentation this afternoon. You have been very helpful. The next panel of witnesses are Mr. John Shepherd, employee relations manager of Safeway, who will be testifying in place of Mr. Robert Kimball, and Mr. William Miller, director of administration, Denver Water Department. Would those two individuals please come to the front of the room? Mr. Shepherd, we welcome you as a witness before the committee. I understand that you don't have a prepared statement. You may proceed as you desire. STATEMENT OF JOHN M. SHEPHERD, MANAGER, PUBLIC Mr. SHEPHERD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is John Shepherd, and I'm the public relations manager for the Denver Division of the Safeway Stores. We share the concern regarding the subject matter of the committee of juvenile delinquency. My comments will be very brief and perhaps I should first begin with some background material concerning our company. The Denver Division of Safeway Stores operates 147 retail stores in an area that encompasses Colorado, Wyoming, and parts of four other States. Sixty of those stores are in the Denver metropolitan area. Safeway subscribes to equal opportunity employment without regard to race, religion, color, natural origin, sex, or age. Our recruiting, hiring, training, and promotional practices are designed to support this policy. In the Denver metropolitan area, we have more than 600 courtesy clerks between the ages of 16 and 18. Over 40 percent of that group are minorities in an area of 20.7 percent minority population. A number of our employees are juveniles who have had a delinquency problem. Many of these are individuals who have simply made a mistake, and they should not have to live with the consequences of that action. With proper guidance and supervision, they can become useful employees and assets to our society. To staff our organization with the best possible employees and to meet other community responsibilities, we have established in Denver a centralized hiring program. This enables us to select from the metropolitan work force potentially good employees to fill our needs. To assist in this employment effort, we maintain contact with a wide range of community organizations, particularly those representing disadvantaged individuals. One such organization is the Southwest Youth Employment Service. In the past 6 months, we have had 14 young people referred to us by this organization and a substantial number were hired and are still employed. Most likely, some of those hired have delinquency records but that fact is not recorded in our employment records. We use only job-related criteria in selecting employees. We use only job performance as a basis for upward mobility, promotion, into better paying positions and transfers. The purpose of these policies is to avoid discrimination on any of the grounds I have already mentioned and to insure that Safeway not only meets its social responsibilities, but also complies fully with the law. The company feels that young people are an asset to our work force and encourages those that are so inclined to make a career with Safeway. We expect to continue our program in Safeway, working with community organizations who are able to make available to us this type of applicant. Mr. HAWKINS. Thank you, Mr. Shepherd. Let me say that during the time that the committee has been in Denver, we have heard commendations of the hiring practices of Safeway, particularly for youthful of fenders. I think it's certainly a great tribute to the organization that you have been able to enjoy that respect in this community, to ployment Service as compared with those that might have been hired directly by Safeway and what has been the experience with their promotions and advancements in the operation? Could you identify the experiences that you have had with respect Mr. SHEPHERD. Mr. Chairman, it would be difficult for me to respond to that because quite often we are not familiar with the particular situation of the applicant. Those that we are familiar with have not been a problem for us. We have, of course, turnover with all new em. ployees, naturally, I can't say that we have had any more turnover in this category than any other, but I just can't say that. Mr. HAWKINS. Let me rephrase that to ask you this. Have you had hired because of some previous infractions of the law, past records! any unfavorable experiences with respect to persons you might have Mr. SHEPHERD. Because of the numbers of employees that we hire. I'm sure that we can find some instances of this. I couldn't put my finger on any trend in those that we have hired. Mr. HAWKINS. With respect to the acceptance of youth in the Safeway Stores, do you feel that any incentive for training subsidy or any other incentives are needed in order to make use of youth? I'm asking this in a general sense. Does the private sector feel that the offering of some kind of incentive is necessary? Mr. SHEPHERD. We do, of course, have very good relationships with several agencies. We have developed a level of confidence with these agencies and the people they send to us. They have a good idea what we are looking for as far as employment and they send us good candidates from which we can make a selection as to whether or not it would be necessary for the supporting functions. Of course, we wouldn't be qualified to say simply because that gets into an area that is foreign to us. Mr. HAWKINS. For those who are accepted, what entry level wage do you pay? This information would be of some assistance to this Committee in determining whether or not more wages is a prevailing factor and in this case whether that is a major consideration of the hiring of these applicants. Mr. SHEPHERD. Traditionally, our jobs are sought after because they are good jobs and they are jobs that provide excellent wage and the opportunity is available specifically in regard to advancement because we utilize our current employees. The typical entry level here is that of the part time courtesy clerk. Currently, we pay the courtesy clerks the wage of $2.88 an hour. Seniority certainly counts considerably as far as the individual, but the topic rate for the food clerks which is the primary position in our stores is $6.36 an hour. Mr. HAWKINS. So, it wouldn't be that you are hiring youth on the basis of that individual being a productive employee and you are still paying him less than another employee? Mr. SHEPHERD. Well, I think, too, that we are concerned about having productive employees as a business. We do have our in-house training programs to provide an employee with guidance to reach that level of productivity. Mr. HAWKINS. Again, I wish to express our commendation for your programs and it's a very refreshing thing that the Committee has noticed in the city of Denver. Mr. Clay. Mr. CLAY. No questions. Mr. LAVOR. No questions. Mr. HAWKINS. You seem to have done a very effective job Mr. Shepherd. Thank you. I appreciate it. I notice that you have some written notes. Mr. SHEPHERD. I will have them prepared and sent to you. Mr. HAWKINS. Thank you. The committee will enter your prepared statement in the record at this point. [Prepared statement of John Shepherd follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT OF JOHN SHEPHERD, PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER, DENVER DIVISION, SAFEWAY STORES, INC. Mr. Chairman: My name is John Shepherd and I am Public Relations Manager for the Denver Division of Safeway Stores, Incorporated. We share your Concern regarding the subject of this hearing which is youth employment and juvenile delinquency. My comments will be brief and perhaps I should first begin with some background material concerning our company. The Denver Division at Safeway operates 147 retail stores and in an area which encompasses Colorado, Wyoming, and parts of four other states. Sixty of those stores are in the Denver Metropolitan area. Safeway is stongly committed to Equal Opportunity Employment. We maintain this posture without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, or age. Our recruiting, hiring, training, and promotion practices are designed to support this policy. In the Denver Metropolitan area we have more than 600 Courtesy clerks most of whom are between the ages of 16 and 18. Over 40% of that group are ethnic minorities in an area which has 20.7% minority population. A number of our employees are juveniles who have had a delinquency problem. Many of these young people have simply made a mistake during a vulnerable period of their lives and should not have to live with the consequences of that action. With proper guidance and supervision they can become useful employees and an asset to our society. To staff our organization with the best possible employees and to meet our community responsibility, we have established in the Denver area centralized hiring program. This enables us to select from the Metropolitan work force potentially good employees to fill our employment needs. To assist in this employment effort we maintain contact with a wide range of community organizations particularly those representing disadvantaged individuals. One such organization is the South West Youth Employment Service. In the last six months we have had 14 young people referred to by this organization, a substantial number of whom we hired and are still employed. Most likely some of those hired have records of delinquency but that fact was not recorded in our employment records. We used only job related criteria in selecting employees. We used only job performance as a basis for upward mobility, promotions to better jobs, and transfers. The purpose of these policies is to avoid discrimination on any other grounds I have already mentioned and to insure that Safeway meets not only a social responsibility but complies fully with the law. Many of our Senior Executives began their career at ages comparable to those being discussed today. The company feels young people are a vital input to our workforce and encourages those who are so inclined to make a career with Safeway. We expect to continue our programs in the Denver area working with community organizations who can make available to us this type of applicant. Thank you. Mr. William Miller, you have a prepared statement which will be printed in the record in its entirety. You may now proceed to either summarize from it or read it as you so desire. [The prepared statement of Mr. Miller follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT OF WILLIAM H. MILLER, DIRECTOR OF ADMINISTRATION, DENVER WATER DEPARTMENT, DENVER, COLO. Representative Hawkins, Ladies and Gentlemen: My name is William H. Miller. I am Director of Administraton for the Denver Water Department and also serve as Chairman of the Advisory Board for Project New Pride. In the short time I have, I'll discuss the activities of these two organizations and the part each has played in reducing youth unemployment and juvenile delinquency in Denver. These efforts might be deemed insignificant because neither program deals with thousands of kids or even hundreds. But both have continuing, concentrated programs that are extremely beneficial to the youth involved. Since Tom James, the Executive Director of Project New Pride, will explain in detail the operations of Project New Pride, I will limit myself to a few general remarks about this program. Project New Pride is a community based program designed to affect a 40 percent recidivism reduction rate among juvenile offenders with two or more felony convictions. The program is small and works with 60 clients a year with intake every four months, and qualifications are very restrictive. Those accepted must be residents of the City and County of Denver who have had two or more convictions for robbery, burglary or assault and have been referred to the program by the Denver Juvenile Court Probation Department. Project New Pride operates at almost a one to one relationship. Its teaching program is accredited by the Denver Public Schools and it has a high ratio of concerned volunteers, many with special skills, working directly with the kids. It is this community participation and the concentration on the individual rather than a mass approach that first attracted me to the program. The program also makes sense economically. It costs approximately $3,000 a year for each new client participating in Project New Pride compared to $12,000 a year if that same individual has to be institutionalized. Project New Pride orginally was accused of being incredibly idealistic for having a goal of dropping the recidivism rate of high impact juvenile offenders from the traditional 80% to 40%. The Project has more than met this goal. The Project originally was completely funded by the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration. The State of Colorado and the City of Denver now are involved in the funding. The typical client of Project New Pride is 16 years old, comes from a single parent family, lives in a housing project on an income that is below the poverty level, with an academic performance at about the 5th grade level, with numerous contacts with the police, has a very bad self image and for the most part does not expect to live to adulthood. The work program we have at the Denver Water Department is quite different. The Water Department is an independent agency of the City of Denver. It is independent by City Charter because it receives no tax money and operates like a private utility. Its entire operation must be paid for with revenues derived from the sale of water. We have approximately 875 employees who provide water service to some 900,000 people in the Denver Metropolitan area. Even though we are a relatively small employer, we have within the Department some 185 different job classifications that range from maintenance and labor work to highly sophisticated computer technicians, engineers, accountants and administrators. Many different community organizations are involved in recruitment efforts by our Personnel Section and provide referrals for employment. A number of these organizations emphasize the referral and employment of youth including representation from minority groups. We have an extensive seasonal preventative maintenance, construction and environmental program and have, for over 25 years, hired seasonal employees during the summer months to complete necessary work programs. In addition to providing sumertime employment for an average of 85 youths each summer, this program also qualifies individuals by giving them experience for full time permanent employment. Last summer we employed 87 individuals in this program, 27 of whom were from the minority communities. We like to get these young people as they come out of hgih school at about age 18. We encourage them to continue their education, either academic or vocationally, and, as an incentive, we hire them on a seasonal basic for four consecutive summers. The employment of youth in our seasonal work program has helped the Department in meeting its goals of providing the most efficient, low cost service possible and at the same time has provided income to the youth while they are developing knowledge and receiving on the job training which will enable them to advance their own careers either with the Water Department or other employers. The Water Department also participates in several other employment programs including: 1. The Cooperative Occupational Education Program sponsored by the Denyer Public Schools. This program enables students to receive occupational training on a part time basis while attending regular high school classes for part of the school day. We have had youngsters from this program working with our auto mechanics, machinists, and related industrial type occupations as well as in our offices receiving on the job training as typists, stenographers, bookkeepers, receptionists and related activities. 2. The Executive Internship Program of the Denver Public Schools. Here, select students are offered the opportunity to participate as interns at the Executive level. The youth serves as a full time assistant to an Executive within the Department, letting this individual gain an insight into the workings of the organization from the administrative point of view. 3. The Environmental Protection Agency Work Incentive Program. The EPA/WIN program coordinated by the Denver Regional Council of Governments offers local government an opportunity to acquire trained manpower for up to one year at no cost to the local government agency. During a twelve month period up to 150 individuals who are receiving some welfare assistance are re |