Summer Youth
Employment Program

 Do you know a teen who would like to earn some extra money next summer? Applications for the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) will be available through Jan. 23, 2015 at http://syep.careersourcebroward.com. 

If you have questions, visit CareerSource Broward at http://www.careersourcebroward.com. 

BCPS Awarded grant

from Project AWARE

Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) has been awarded a two-year Project AWARE grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The grant will support the training of school personnel and other adults who interact with youth in both school settings and communities to detect and respond to mental illness in children and youth in the Broward community.

Individuals will be trained in Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA), a course that teaches participants how to help youth who are developing a mental health problem or experiencing a mental health crisis. The training will help them to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders.

Urgent Inc. students
host film series, screening

As part of National Mentor Month, the students of Urgent Inc.,Rites of Passage and Film, Art, Culture, Coding Entrepreneurship (FACE) will host a film series and screening that brings attention to social issues that include homelessness and other social barriers.

The event will include screenings of one feature-length film, “Unrealistic, and two short films, Keeping It On and Two Similar Strategies. There also will be a discussion with Jalen James Acosta, director of Unrealistic.

The activities will take place 11 a.m. Saturday at OCinema 90 NW 29th St, Miami, FL 33127. Cost is $20 for adults, $5 for students. For more information, contact Saliha Nelson 305-205-4605 or saliha@urgentinc.org.

Floridians rally to expand
Medicaid to nearly 1 million

MIAMI — Patients and health advocates will rally across Florida to urge Gov. Rick Scott and lawmakers to expand Medicaid to nearly 1 million residents.

Thursday’s rally is slated to take place in Miami, Tallahassee, Tampa and Orlando and will include a coalition of nearly 100 organizations. They want lawmakers to accept roughly $50 billion from the federal government over the next decade to offer health coverage to residents who are too poor to qualify for tax credits in the marketplace, yet earn too much to qualify for Medicaid.

The federal government has agreed to pay 100 percent of the costs for three years and start phasing down to 95 percent in 2017. State Republicans have expressed concern that the feds will not make good on that promise, leaving the state on the hook for the tab.

Hospitals, the Florida Medical Association and many business groups all support Medicaid expansion.

 Compiled from staff, wire reports