In a busted economy, American teenagers are learning a harsh lesson about where training programs, vigorous job-hunting and ladder-climbing may leave them: with dead-end service industry jobs, at best.

That’s the conclusion that Kamal Stewart, a West Baltimore 19-year-old, says he’s reaching after his stint at the city summer program YouthWorks.

Under the program, Stewart was first assigned to work at a Stop & Shop supermarket, and then was relocated to Coppin Academy on North Avenue, where he worked as an assistant director in a children’s performance camp.

Since then, after applying for a Dunkin’ Donuts job – visiting the store every day for two weeks to ask about the status of his application, having two interviews and undergoing a training program  – he’s gotten a job there.

“When I first started, I got $7.25″ an hour, he said, in a phone interview with The Brew. “But now I get paid $7.75.”

$7.25 an hour is the federal minimum wage.

“New Generation Jobs”

With young people like Stewart in mind, the youth-led Baltimore-based social justice group New Lens is holding a free event this evening (at 7- 8:30 p.m. in the Charles Theatre) focusing on the youth unemployment problem and highlighting creative strategies to address it.

It includes a panel discussion, led by WEAA radio host Marc Steiner, that features city schools’  Learning to Work Career and Technology Education office, the youth group Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle and others. They will also screen a film on the issue made by New Lens.

One of the filmmakers, Babatunde Salaam, spoke with The Brew and described interviewing local teens who, in some cases, had little hope for a good future.

“A lot of them viewed themselves as expendable,” he said.

Statistics suggest they have good reason to feel that way. In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, unemployed adults are taking menial and part-time jobs, shrinking opportunities for youth.

Only 26 percent of youth have jobs today, compared to 45 percent in the late 1990s, according to studies discussed in the film. Employment for 16 to 19-year-olds has fallen to its lowest level since World War II.

Creative Ways to Make a Living

The New Lens event will talk about the group’s model of youth-led employment and other innovative strategies. The film includes local young people who have found creative ways to make a living, said Rebecca Yenawine, Executive Director of New Lens.

“While some of the jobs are not ones that some adults would approve of, like tattoo artistry, they are out there making a living,” she said.

Deverick Murray, of Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, said what’s needed are employment programs aimed at finding something beyond menial work for youth.

“I don’t see those jobs helping young adults becoming citizens and further themselves in the community,” he said. “Cities should pay as an investment . . . communities should help.“

Stewart said he’s glad to have a job and doesn’t fault the YouthWorks program (“It prepared us for working the type of job that we were assigned to.”) but he wants more than minimum wage at a chain restaurant.

“I’d maybe like to own a barber shop,” he said, explaining that he got the idea while he was working for a barber, and waiting for the Dunkin’ Donuts job to come through. He knows that if that plan works out, it would only be after walking a long, low-wage road to get there:

“I’d have to go to barber school, get a license, work to get experience.”