Rent-A-Kid, Atlanta’s homegrown summer job program which is spreading across the nation, will begin June 2, its second year of helping needy teenagers provide their families with the necessities of life.

Father Edward Dillon, who, with Mrs. Joy Ruyle of Economic Opportunity Atlanta, started the program last year, said the new program will be greatly expanded and should be able to serve about twice the number of kids as last year.

The central office will be located at 136 Marietta St. NW with a telephone number of 577-5252. In addition, there will be 11 satellite offices scattered throughout the Atlanta metropolitan area. Calls made to the central office will be referred to Rockdale County.

Each satellite will have an active roster of 100 kids aged 14-18 who generally have been referred by their school counselors as needing the work. In addition there will be an inactive list of all others for whom there isn’t room on the active list.

To stay on the active list, a student must come or phone to the satellite office each day and report that he’s ready to work and jobs are assigned as they come in. If he wants to play baseball or go swimming occasionally, he just doesn’t check in.

For most tasks, such as doing yard and housework, they are paid $1.35 an hour. Babysitting brings 75 cents an hour during the day and $1 an hour at night.

Last year, some 500 kids made bout $6,000 during the summer months, some banking as much as $300. This year, Father Dillon said he hopes that some 1,200 will be active.

The Optimist Clubs have become involved and it is hoped that other civic clubs likewise will become interested so that their members will serve as “big brothers and sisters” to the needy students.

“We’re trying to help the kids who really need the money to buy the necessities of life, not the ones who just want gas for their cars,” said the youthful priest.

Father Dillon, who was assigned to St. Anthony’s Parish when the program was born in West End last year, is now assigned to the Archdiocesan Metropolitan Tribunal but still is involved in the program as an extracurricular activity.

A college and a high school student will be located at each satellite office and a college student and three other persons will be at the central office.

Father Dillon said employers are encouraged to pick up the students and return them home. “This serves two purposes,” he said. “It assures that the student will get to the job and it gives the employer the opportunity to see the conditions in which he lives.”

The approximately $9,500 annual budget comes through the Atlanta Metropolitan Commission on Crime and Juvenile Delinquency, and the Southern Council on International Public Affairs.

Last year, the program squeaked by on a total of $615. Federal aid also is being sought this year.

A profile on the average kid up for rental says that he is 15, has six brothers and sisters, lives in a fatherless household where his mother works. He lives in public housing, shares a bed with at least two other children and eats 11/2 meals a day. His family’s income is less than $3,000 annually.

They want to earn money so they can go back to school in the fall with adequate money for clothing, transportation to school and lunch money.

The satellite offices will be located in the Bedford-Pine area, Grant Park, West End, Forest Park, Conyers, Techwood, Northwest Perry Extension, Dixie Hills, Kirkwood, Lynwood Park and Oakhill Homes.