The Summer Youth Workforce Program, which created more than 300 local jobs with wages paid by the 2009 federal stimulus bill, is no longer taking applications in Colorado Springs.

The temporary program is at capacity, with 250 older teenagers and young adults already working and more than 50 set to start in the next couple of weeks.

“Once the word spread, it really took off like wildfire,” said Michelle Graham, who oversees funding through the Pikes Peak Workforce Center.

The program allocated $1.4 million in El Paso and Teller counties. Youths get training and employers get extra help from May through the end of September. At that point, some youths will return to school; others will have to find a new job.

Low-income and disadvantaged youths ages 16 to 24 were eligible. No one could be laid off or fired to create a position.

Jobs include designing a Web site for a “green” construction company, shelving books at a local library and cultivating an urban garden. The program encourages high-tech and “green” jobs.—Contact the writer at 636-0368.

Desert four-o’clocks work best in the garden when started as small seedlings or seeds. Photo by Leslie Holzmann, Colorado Master Gardener