At offices around the city, it is time for youth employees to switch places. The Summer Youth Employment Program in the city gave jobs to roughly 200 students in high school and college this summer. Half of those employed worked the first four weeks of the summer, and now this week, another 110 will take their place for the last summer work session.

“These kids will be filling in the slots of those who worked the first four weeks,” Mayor George Evans said. “It is like they are taking the next shift.”

At the end of May the students that applied for the program entered into a lottery system and out of the 400 that applied, only 200 were chosen randomly for jobs — that is twice the numbered hired than in previous years. The city was able to hire more students by switching to this two-term system. At the lottery, city officials told the 25 alternates selected that every year almost all of those alternates receive jobs. As for this year, Evans said he is unsure of the amount of alternates that received jobs, but he said some of the alternates were utilized.

“The first four weeks went really well and everything was good,” Evans said.

He hopes that the employment program will be a great opportunity to help youth with their finances and their resume.

“This just lets [the youth] know that they can be a part of helping city government as well as Selma to grow,” Evans said. “They are taught some skills and get work training and learn how to do certain things may turn out to be a job for them out of college.”