By Mary Lackie

Rent a Kid, an organization started in Southwest Atlanta to provide summer jobs for teen-agers, has been publicized from Little Rock to London.

Because of the publicity, the staff has received inquiries from state employment bureaus and cities across the country interested in the program. The Metropolitan Atlanta Commission on Crime and Delinquency, one of the program’s sponsors will provide funds to incorporate Rent-A-Kid as a non-profit organization with a national trademark.

“We are incorporating so that we will be able to establish guidelines. We don’t want the kids exploited,” said Father Edward J. Dillon, assistant pastor of St. Anthony’s Church.

Rent-A-Kid, an organization for teen-agers in the 14-18 age group, began at the West End Neighborhood Service Center. “The idea was that kids had nothing to do until they went back to school. People had jobs that needed to be done around the home. You just put the two together,” the priest said.

Teen-agers enrolled in the company receive instructions in childcare, ironing, and lawn work. They were given emergency training by the crime squad and fire department. Enrollers are paid an hourly wage for their work, and the money goes directly to the workers.

A savings program is an essential part of Rent-A-Kid. “These teen-agers are not working to buy gas for their cars. They are buying food, clothes and shoes with their money. You can’t speak in an abstract way about savings to kids who live from day to day. You have to come up concrete rewards,” Father Dillon said.

A local bank and department store are helping with the savings incentive program. At the end of the summer, a $50 bonus will be given to the ‘super-saver,’ and two bonuses of $25 to the second and third.

“The majority of the people who have called to hire the teen-agers are keen about the program being successful. We are trying to encourage people to pick up the workers and bring them home. They will see the neighborhood and the conditions that exist where the kids live,” Father Dillon said.

A measure of the response from teen-agers was when the second Rent-A-Kid office opened at the West Central Neighborhood Service Center. The first day 30 kids signed up in the first half-hour. The active list was closed within a week,” Father Dillon said.

“These kids are basically good, high spirited and energetic, like other kids, they need money. They live with a sense of ‘nowness.’ I have always felt that people didn’t realize that within two or three blocks of their homes, there were kids going to bed hungry at night. Now, I am beginning to think that there are people who don’t want to know. If they did, their consciences would bother them. It is simpler to shut it out of their minds.”

Unless the West End Rent-A-Kid office is adopted, it will close at the end of the summer. “We desperately need someone to adopt Rent-A-Kid, perhaps a church or other organization to provide funds and the staff to keep it going through the winter,” Father Dillon said.

Rent-A-Kid has offices at four locations and a booth staffed by volunteer workers at the Greenbriar Shopping Center on Saturdays. The program is sponsored by the Mayor’s Council on Youth and the Metropolitan Atlanta Commission on Juvenile Delinquency.