Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is calling on Baltimore companies to hire local youths for the summer.

Rawlings-Blake held an event at Western High School on Wednesday to urge businesses to hire 16 to 21 year olds through the Hire One Youth campaign for Baltimore’s YouthWorks summer jobs program, according to a news release. 

"It is vital that Baltimore’s business community take an active role in employing our young citizens this summer," Rawlings-Blake said in the release. "This is not a charitable effort—these young men and women are poised and ready to contribute to the offices, hospitals, financial institutions, and production facilities that fuel our local economy. When Baltimore’s citizens work, the city works, and it can grow into the place we all know it can be."

The cost of hiring a young person for the time period between June 25 and Aug. 3 is $1,200, according to the mayor's office. Participating companies must employee youths for a minimum of six weeks at 25 hours a week.

The 2012 Hire One Youth campaign has so far lined up 42 commitments from companies for a total of 143 jobs and the YouthWorks program arranges about 5,000 jobs, according to a news release.