Spending the summer taking orders and cleaning tables, Odin Pawlson is enjoying his first summer job.

“It's challenging at times. Sometimes I really look for a challenge. It's challenging, it's hard, but it's also thrilling when there's like that lunch rush, you know?” he said.

The 15-year old got the job through New York’s Youth Employment Program.

Powered through the Gun Involved Violence Elimination initiative (GIVE), it helps young people like Pawlson to get jobs like this.

Recently, Gov. Kathy Hochul announces nearly $40 million to provide job opportunities and trainings for another 2,500 young people with the goal of reducing gun violence by giving teenagers something productive to do during the summer or all year long.

“They get exposure. They are kind of taken outside of maybe their comfort zones," Red Hook Community Center Program Director Jeung-il Tsumagari said. "They get that experience that they might not get until they're older, until after high school with skills that are really transferable.”

Local agencies run the programs in their neighborhoods, like at Taste Budd’s cafe where Tsumagari says more investment by the state makes a huge difference because programs like this build kids’ confidence.

“Confidence is a huge part in how they show up and this program supports them in strengthening their skills as well as those really basic life skills in a lot of ways," Tsumagari said.

Pawlson said he can’t wait to work even once school starts back up because what he learns here goes past the register.

“You just basically convert what I do here, like priorities. Grab the pastries then make the coffee, then get the next customer, you know, finish one customer before you move on to the next," he said.

The governor credits programs like this through GIVE with reducing shootings.

GIVE districts reported a 29% decrease in shooting incidents with injury through July of this year, compared to the same seven-month period last year.