More students scored jobs this summer through Baltimore City’s YouthWorks program than in any year before, officials announced Wednesday afternoon.

More than 6,500 students participated in the program this year, an increase of about 20 percent over the 5,400 who took part in YouthWorks last year, officials said.

The program has been a priority for Mayor Sheila Dixon and Gov. Martin O’Malley.

“At its core, YouthWorks is really about community,” O’Malley said at a news conference at Mercy Medical Center while flanked by seven teenagers whose jobs at the hospital end Friday. “They’re the future of our city.”

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Nearly 400 teenagers in the program worked for the state, equaling an investment of about $300,000, marking the most the state has dedicated to YouthWorks.

O’Malley said he hoped to give every student who wants to work a job through the program.