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2000 Press Releases

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US Transportation Department and the National Urban League

Partner in $1 Million Initiative to Prepare Inner-City Residents

for Careers in Transportation

New York, NY, April 10, 2000–National Urban League President Hugh B. Price and U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater announced today that six Urban League affiliates will participate in the National Urban Sustainable Employment in Transportation (NUSET) initiative, a project created to prepare inner-city youth, welfare recipients and low-income individuals for education and career opportunities in highway construction and transportation technology.

The National Urban League will administer the NUSET initiative through $1 million in funding provided by the Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration. The federal funding will be supplemented by in-kind and cash contributions from various partners and selected Urban League affiliates.

The six affiliates selected are: The Upstate Urban League of Greenville, SC; the Urban League of Champaign, Ill.; the Urban League of San Diego, Calif.; The Minneapolis and St. Paul Urban Leagues of Minn.; the Urban League of Baltimore, MD; and the Urban League of Louisville, KY.

The South Carolina, Illinois and California affiliates will focus on youth career education initiatives, and the Minneapolis, Maryland and Kentucky affiliates will enact workforce development initiatives, including placement and supportive services for highway construction and transportation technology careers.

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$1 Million for Transportation Careers…Page Two

In praising the U.S. DOT for its outreach, Price said, "Partnerships with public transit authorities and agencies, with the labor and the private sectors, are the keys to creating jobs programs for the poor — jobs that make America work for all Americans."

Added Slater, "President Clinton’s and Vice President Gore’s highest priority is education because education is the key to opportunity. To ensure that we have the skilled workforce to meet the transportation needs of the next century, the U.S. Department of Transportation must continue to take steps, as we have through this partnership, to recruit and train a labor force skilled for transportation-related careers."

"Transportation is the backbone of our national economy, providing a vital link to jobs as well as a wealth of employment opportunities," Kenneth R. Wykle, Administrator, the Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration said. "This initiative will encourage inner-city youth to achieve academic success in subjects relating to transportation and will direct their attention and that of the adult workforce to career opportunities in the transportation industry."

The NUSET initiative is an outgrowth of a 1998 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Urban League. The MOU established a partnership between the two organizations to better promote transportation safety awareness, transportation-related employment and transportation-related educational opportunities in the nation’s urban areas.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is at work for America building a safe transportation system for the 21^st century - one that is international in reach, intermodal in form, intelligent in character, and inclusive in service. With a proposed budget of $54.9 billion for Fiscal Year 2001, the DOT vision of leading the way to transportation excellence is carried out by its nearly 100,000 employees nationwide.

Founded in 1910, the National Urban League is a nonprofit organization whose 115 affiliates in 35 states and the District of Columbia provide direct services focused on empowering African-Americans to achieve economic, academic and racial equality. The League’s headquarters is located at 120 Wall Street in New York City.