Last year the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics placed youth, ages 16 to 24, unemployment at 18.1 percent for the summer. The statistics for black and Hispanic youth were 31 percent and 20.1 percent respectively.

One little-known community alliance working to address the problem is a Durham Congregations in Action initiative called YO: Durham.

DCIA is an interracial, interfaith organization that promotes mutual understanding across race, faith and community boundaries. It started YO: Durham in 2007.

I work with a few of the teens that YO: Durham mentors in my job with the Northeast Central Durham Community VOICE. a collaborative journalism education project between UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Journalism and Mass Communication and NCCU's English and Mass Communication Department.

Although two-thirds of participants are African-American, YO: Durham serves teens of all races and faiths ages 15 to 17 considered "at risk."

For example, kids may have an incarcerated parent or sibling, have had academic or behavioral problems in school such as truancy or live in homes that subject them to environmental risk factors such as gangs.

The idea for YO: Durham sprang as organizers studied other communities struggling with disenchanted teens to find a successful model for Durham.

They discovered Boston's award-winning Summer of Opportunity that provided paid-internships and workplace exposure to that city's teens through a combination of personal and career guidance.

In the process, the city increased high school graduation rates and college attendance among teens in troubled neighborhoods while curbing youth violence.

YO: Durham grants teens a "year of opportunity" by providing benefits including individual adult mentoring from community members, service learning opportunities like working in soup kitchens, a six-week paid summer career academy to teach career oriented skills and internships with area businesses and organizations.

Many businesses in town believe in YO: Durham's mission keeping city youth prepared in a competitive global environment.

The group's major community sponsors include N.C. Mutual Life Insurance Co., Duke University Health System and Health Planning Source, a health care consulting and planning firm.

N.C. Mutual's headquarters serves as base for the program's Summer Career Academy in which students attend weekday classes from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. dressed in business attire. They learn conflict-resolution and time-management skills as well as effective communication and goal setting through role-playing simulations with Durham professionals.

To round out their summer experience, students also tour local college campuses, city and county government offices, museums and a ropes course.

After the summer academy, YO: Durham students are eligible for paid internships through local businesses.

Eric Olson-Getty, YO: Durham's internship and mentor coordinator, says the biggest benefit for teens is that they gain career-based job experience that they may not have otherwise had such as hands-on community service learning.

Students learn to use creativity to overcome challenges in a professional environment while learning to think long-term about their future job prospects and education.

Sharif Ruebin, 16, grew up in Durham and is interning with me at the VOICE. He said he was grateful for YO: Durham because it gives him tools to tackle his internship and his future career. He said the program is teaching him the joy of "giving back."

"I've taken part in the service learning activities throughout the year," he said. "It feels good giving back to the community."

With the disappearance of textile and tobacco jobs that sustained Durham a couple of generations ago, YO: Durham addresses the need of re-tooling Durham youth to be ready for the modern work world - a world very different from that of their parents and grandparents.

Olson-Getty said with youth unemployment in the Triangle reaching near record levels, more community effort and collaboration is needed to address the problem.

"We're small," he said, "but we try to be an example of how community can make a difference by investing even a small part of resources in the lives of young people."