I appreciated The Baltimore Sun's recent article ("Teen jobs feel pinch of slump; Fewer openings in city's summer work program as U.S. stimulus funds are cut entitled," July 20), which highlighted the importance of summer employment for our city's youth. Your article correctly noted that federal stimulus funds, which helped many communities across the country put teens to work last summer, were not available this year. What's also important to note is that, as a result, hundreds of cities simply chose not to operate summer youth employment programs this year.

Knowing this, I applaud the fact that Baltimore City's commitment to make summer jobs a priority - even in this dire economy - has put more than 5,400 teens in jobs. While we were certainly impacted by the loss of the federal stimulus funding, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and our City Council made sure that money was available to support our annual YouthWorks program during one of the city's most challenging budgetary environments.

Those funds were complimented by the successful efforts of our elected representatives in Congress, who worked hard to bring a $575,000 grant to the City for the benefit of summer youth employment. This specific funding stream has allowed an additional 300 youth to be matched with employers from the public and private sectors. Presently, these young people are productively engaged in employment within eight of Baltimore's high-growth industry sectors.

While our goal will always be to offer every youth who wants to work the opportunity to do so, we should acknowledge Baltimore City's unwavering belief in investing in our future workforce today.

Karen Sitnick, Baltimore

The writer is director of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's Office of Employment Development