Markeshia Ricks photo
Lauryn Darden, 14, and Nazair Peters, 15, said they would be stuck at home, or in harm’s way, if they didn’t have a safe place to go after school. Fortunately they spend their afternoons in the Leaders-in-Training (LEAP) Inc. getting their homework done, playing sports like basketball and swimming, and learning how to be leaders and mentors.
LEAP is one of 23 local non-profits who got a piece of a $500,000 grant to prevent youth violence in New Haven, and to help young people like Peters and Darden build skills that will help them well into adulthood.
Members of the Board of Alders, Mayor Toni Harp and State Rep. Toni Walker announced Monday evening that the city had received the grant money from the State of Connecticut Judicial Branch to continue its Youth Violence Prevention grant program.
Harp noted the city had 17 homicides by Dec. 1 last year. This year the number is down to 12, a decline she attributes partially to youth violence prevention programs.
“Twelve is still too many,” she said. “These programs keep our youth in school. They keep them engaged and keep them productive.” Referring to the recent controversy over a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer shooting an unarmed teenager, Harp said if there were more opportunities for youth like those funded by the grant, “we wouldn’t be in the crisis that we are in in America today.”
State Rep. Toni Walker, House chair of the Appropriations Committee, said two of the top priorities for the state budget are providing funding for youth violence programs and job training, and New Haven demonstrated “that its children come first.” She said the grant program allows city leaders to create a process that puts money where they thought it would do the most good.
“This Board of Aldermen knows the children in this community,” she said. “The state delegation wanted to give these aldermen the opportunity to do what they know is best.”
Yale Alder Sara Eidelson, chair of the Board of Alders Youth Services Committee, said that when the grant program was initiated by the state in 2012, it was unique that the board was tapped to devise a strategy for awarding the funding to programs that addressed youth who might be at risk for youth violence in three categories:
• Youth job readiness, training and certification
• Youth leadership, mentorship and mediation
• Other youth violence prevention initiatives including but not limited to literacy; physical health and wellness; social; emotional and behavioral health, mental and sexual health; homeless and special needs youth. (Read another story about how the city is addressing youth violence here.)
The money helps programs like Solar Youth provide internships for teens like Moet Charles, 17 (pictured), who has been with the program since she was 8. Charles is an intern teaching environmental studies and nonviolent communication skills to younger children in the program. She said she’d be “kinda sad” if Solar Youth weren’t around. “It’s really helped me, in a way, because I wasn’t in the street,” she said. “I look forward to going there three times a week. It keeps me busy and I’ve learned job skills.”
Solar Youth founder/Executive Director Joanne Sciulli (pictured) said the importance of youth development programs has often been underscored in real, tangible ways. “In the last three years we’ve felt the effect of violence,” she said. “There have been three neighborhood shootings around 4 p.m. when our kids are coming to our programs. There have been two homicides 100 feet from our offices.”
The grant money also is helping organizations like Elephant in the Room (EIR) Urban Youth Boxing Inc. address immediate needs like transportation for amateur boxers, and eventually needs like services that address homelessness. EIR Executive Director Devonne Canady (pictured with boxer Sharquan Lacks, 17) said she hopes her organization can one day provide housing as they discover young people who have a passion for boxing, but call shelters home.
2014 – 2015 Youth Violence Grantees
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwestern CT $50,000
Boys & Girls Club of New Haven $10,000
Breakthru! Inc. $40,000
Bregamos Community Theater $10,000
Catholic Charities $10,000
Children’s Community Programs of CT $30,836
Community Mediation Inc. $8,440
CONH Department of Parks, Recreation and Trees $49,972
EIR Urban Youth Boxing Inc. $30,000
Hallah Edutainment LLC. $5,000
Higher Heights Youth Empowerment $20,000
Higher Heights Youth Empowerment Programs Inc. $10,000
Junta for Progressive Action $35,752
LEAP Inc. $10,000
LEAP Inc. $50,000
LGBTQ Youth Kickback $7,500
Music Haven $10,000
New Haven Family Alliance Inc. $35,000
New Haven Reads Community Book Bank $10,000
New Haven Youth Tennis and Education $7,500
Solar Youth $50,000
Squash Haven-Payne Whitney Gymnasium $5,000
Youth Rights Media $5,000