Illinois § 8

§ 8.

Illinois Youth Recreation Corps. With respect to the Illinois Youth Recreation Corps: (a) Purpose. The Illinois Youth Recreation Corps is established for the purpose of making grants to local sponsors to provide wages to youth operating and instructing in conservation or recreational programs. Such programs shall provide conservation or recreational opportunities and shall include, but are not limited to, the coordination and teaching of natural resource conservation and management, physical activities, or learning activities directly related to natural resource conservation management or recreation. Such programs may charge user fees, but such fees shall be designed to promote as much community involvement as possible, as determined by the Department. (b) Application. Local sponsors who can provide necessary facilities, materials and management for summer conservation or recreational activities within the community and who desire a grant under this Act for the purpose of hiring managing supervisors as necessary and eligible youth for such conservation or recreational programs may make application to the Department of Natural Resources. Applications shall be evaluated on the basis of program content, location, need, local commitment of resources, and consistency with the purposes of this Act. (c) Enrollment. The Illinois Youth Recreation Corps shall be limited to citizens of this State who at the time of enrollment are 14 through 18 years of age inclusive and who have skills that can be utilized in the summer conservation or recreational program. The ratio of youth employee enrollees to a managing supervisor must not be less than 10 to 1 for any local sponsor with a total number of youth employee enrollees of 10 or more. Any local sponsor program with a total number of youth employee enrollees of less than 10 must be limited to one managing supervisor. The local sponsors shall make public notification of the availability of jobs for eligible youth in the Illinois Youth Recreation Corps by the means of newspapers, electronic media, educational facilities, units of local government and Department of Employment Security offices. Application for employment shall be made directly to the local sponsor. The Department shall adopt reasonable rules pertaining to the administration of the Illinois Youth Recreation Corps. (d) Terms of Employment. The enrollment period for any successful applicant of the program shall not be longer than 60 working days during the months of June, July and August. Once enrolled in the program, each enrollee shall receive a reasonable wage as set by the Department and shall work hours as required by the conservation or recreation program but not in excess of a maximum number of hours as determined by the Department, except that an enrollee working as a managing supervisor shall receive a higher wage than an enrollee working in any other capacity on the conservation or recreation program. Enrollees shall be employees of the local sponsor and not contractual hires for the purpose of employment taxes, except that enrollees shall not be classified as employees of the State or the local sponsor for purposes of contributions to the State Employees' Retirement System of Illinois or any other public employee retirement system. (Source: P.A. 97-738, eff. 7-5-12.)